By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) in collaboration with MTN Nigeria and Successory Nigeria Limited have launched a Business School for farmers.
Known as the NIRSAL Farmers’ Business School (NFBS), it will operate on a mobile learning platform that is based on Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology.
The school will provide convenient, bespoke training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) to Nigeria’s Smallholder Farmers (SHFs) who crave improved access to vital information which is critical to the success of primary production cycles.
NIRSAL believes that rural farmers have limited or no access to vital information on best practice, finance availability, growth management and the needs of the market’
Consequently NIRSAL in conjunction with MTN Nigeria and Successory Nigeria Limited agreed to provide support mechanisms that plug information gaps, boost entrepreneurial capacities, and improve access to commercial finance.
Successory Nigeria Limited will lead “collaborators in the research and development of the framework of the NFBS, design of the infrastructure, creation of the system map and process flow, and set up of the back-end infrastructure, the output of which has gone through testing and quality assurance”.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the launch in Abuja on Thursday, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed, Managing Director/CEO of NIRSAL Plc, assured farmers that the platform will not too sophisticated and expensive for some rural farmers to use.
He said that “pre-design research and situational analyses took such concerns into account, hence, the product is a multi-language, offline on-the-go platform that can be accessed via any mobile phone – smart or not”.
In terms of cost, NIRSAL MD said that “at N100 per week, a subscriber could access all the courses and assessments due to them, and at their own pace. A N50 fee would apply for access to additional market opportunities, weather forecasts/updates, and special deals, while with N20 only, subscribers could procure step-by-step guidance on specific farm activities such as pest control and fertilizer application”.
Abdulhameed emphasized the importance of the platform to NIRSAL Plc, its owners the CBN, the Federal Government, Banks, and other investors in agricultural primary production as it will promote the inclusion of farmers in the use of ICT and limit physical classroom engagements in line with the new normal.
The platform also holds great value for NIRSAL’s officials in the field “who have been wading through towns, villages and bushes to perform their training and capacity building assignments”.
Mr. Adekunle Adebiyi, Chief Sales Distribution Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr Adekunle Adebiyi explained that MTN is a natural collaborator in initiatives that meaningfully connect, inform and educate Nigerians.
He said that “MTN’s network connectivity in Nigeria will serve as the conduit for a seamless, continuous, and cost-effective interaction between NIRSAL Plc and farmers, which will lead to improved productivity and earnings across board”.
Adebiyi declared MTN’s resolve to support the initiative with free SIM cards for farmers as a way of accelerating the take-off of the platform and the onboarding of millions of farmers.
Located in all 36 states of the federation and the FCT, NIRSAL’s Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Offices (PMRO) were provided with the product shortcode in advance to ground truth and to understand the approaches for onboarding users on new and existing MTN SIM cards.
A brief demo of the platform conducted by Mr. Isaiah Bendi, Managing Director/CEO of FBIS Technologies, revealed its paced, multi-language interactivity, as well as ease of navigation.
The Acting Director of Corporate Communications of the CBN, Mr. Osita Nwanisobi, applauded NIRSAL Plc and its partners for the initiative and urged the press to drive its uptake nationally for the good of all.
As the lead developer of the product, Successory would oversee the onboarding process of subscribers and address whatever teething challenges that occur. Beyond that, the company is to ensure that the NIRSAL Farmers’ Business School continues to give value to NIRSAL Plc and the farmers who use the platform to boost their capacities and productivity.
