AN APPRAISAL OF ELECTRONIC WALLET COMMUNICATION IN GROWTH ENHANCEMENT SUPPORT SCHEME OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA IN NAERLS
AN APPRAISAL OF ELECTRONIC WALLET COMMUNICATION IN GROWTH ENHANCEMENT SUPPORT SCHEME OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA IN NAERLS
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-06
Authors
AFOLABI, Ekundayo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The study appraises the Electronic Wallet communication platform under the Growth
Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS). The revolution in the media has greatly altered
communication in all spheres of life including agriculture. The integration of the ICTs to
some extent has brought possible solutions to developing countries especially in their
utilization for agriculture. Though, for more than two decades, Nigeria‟s agriculture has
been plunged into several reformation crises which have demanded the use of different
communication strategies with little or no results in some cases. All these brought about
the recent deployment of the e-wallet as part of the schemes by the Federal Government
to reform the agricultural sector since 2011. It is therefore imperative to assess the new
communication strategy as it has been operated under the reformation which is the focus
of this study. In this study, 80 (40 from each village) farmers were administered
questionnaire to in Nassarawan Buhari and Nwogi communities. They are registered
farmers who have participated in the e-wallet scheme since its inauguration. The adopted
villages were selected because they were part of the communities where the registration
of farmers under the scheme commenced earlier in the North Central and North West
agro-ecological Zones of Nigeria. So far, the study appraised e-wallet‟s effectiveness,
usability and acceptability among farmers in the selected villages. The Diffusion and
Innovation Theory and the Participatory Communication Theory underpinned the study
in order to generate solid argument for effective communication approaches. For data
analysis, this study used tables and simple descriptive statistical tools. The study
discovered that farmers are aware of the e-wallet scheme through many sources
especially the radio as the highest source. The study revealed that the e-wallet is an
effective scheme that has helped drive Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Meanwhile,
there were challenges of interconnectivity and network failure as experienced by the
farmers in this study. Though the scheme is acceptable by farmers, but the process has
not been really participatory. Thus, there is a need for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development to build improved e-wallet system that will enable the farmers
interact very well and strengthen their involvement in the sustainable development of the
system beyond the present regime. Also, the e-wallet scheme communication approach
should be deployed in other value chains of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (in
order to take care of farm-to-market) process in order to help farmers get responsive and
viable market prices and sales. More so, the Federal Government should consolidate the
success of the scheme by establishing a National Helpline Center that will accommodate
complaints, and allow farmers to contribute to the policy making and development of the
sectors through enriched information from in-depth mobile phone communication
system. The platform should be fortified with error detector mechanism in order to put a
stop to false alert and inconsistency in redemption information as witnessed by some
farmers in this study.
Description
BEING A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A)
IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS,
FACULTY OF ARTS,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
APPRAISAL,, ELECTRONIC WALLET,, COMMUNICATION,, GROWTH ENHANCEMENT,, SUPPORT SCHEME,, AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION,, AGENDA IN NAERLS.