[WATCH] The Central Bank of Nigeria Expands eNaira Use with ARGO Wallet Targeting 5 Million Farmers By 2024

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in cooperation with the Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP), have launched the, ‘Agro eNaira Wallet Engagement’ program aiming to enroll five million farmers across northern states in the 2023 to 2024 dry and wet farming seasons.

Over 4 million Nigerian farmers to benefit from the Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP) under the 'Agro e-Naira Engagement' Program in collaboration with the pic.twitter.com/Sx7WHKdHGO

— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) May 11, 2023

At the launch ceremony of the Agro eNaira Wallet, the National President of ANAACOP, Alhaji Sadiq Umar Daware, announced that the initiative aims to serve one million farmers in the northern states during the first year of both the 2023 dry and wet seasons and four million farmers in the 2024 seasons.

As part of the intervention, farmers would be required to set up eNaira wallet accounts with a sub-wallet account designated for the programmable intervention. They would also need to provide their information to qualify for access to soft loans.

In a bid to ensure food security in the region and country at large, the Association of Northern Agricultural and Allied Commodities Practitioners (ANAACOP) in partnership with the…

Continue reading >>> https://t.co/HYmMGQgVHf#foodsecurity#agriculture#millerspic.twitter.com/2m4yb7I20r

— AgroNigeria (@agronigeria) March 28, 2023

Furthermore, Daware elaborated that the program had collaborated with agro dealers, processors, and the CBN to facilitate a streamlined and convenient method of distributing funds to farmers. He added that the program would offer smallholder farmers a seamless process to obtain loans using their eNaira wallet with no obstacles ensuring that previous challenges faced by farmers are eliminated.

There has been a notable increase in the activity of the Nigeria Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in recent times. In March 2023, there was a 63% year-on-year surge in eNaira transactions, and the number of digital wallets rose to 13 million. Although cash shortages may have contributed to the recent increase in adoption, the government aid programs are the main driving force behind the new wave of eNaira usage.

Godwin Emiefele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, stated that roughly 30% of the total digital wallets, which amounts to around four million wallets, were created in anticipation of social intervention payments.

The CBN has adopted a tiered KYC structure that requires increased identity information to upgrade daily transaction and balance limits:

• A ‘tier 0’ account only requires a mobile phone number but caps daily transactions at N20,000 ($43)
• On the other hand, a Tier 1 account requires a national identity number and allows for transactions of up to N50,000 ($109)
• Tiers 2 and 3 demand a bank account number, but the number of users subscribed at those levels is less than 400,000