Inputs: Nigerian government To Reintroduce GES Policy

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, has said the federal government is reintroducing the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) and strengthening it to reach farmers at the grassroots directly.

The GES is an electronic wallet system that allows the federal government to send farm input support directly to the smallholder farmers across the country.

With the system, a farmer receives a text message directing him where to pick up the input, boycotting all the protocols of going through several hands.

The scheme was first introduced by a former minister, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who is now the president of the African Development Bank (AFDB), during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, in a bid to eliminate decades of corrupt practices that characterised the system.

It was abolished by a former minister, Audu Ogbeh, during the first tenure of the present administration.

The current minister, Dr Abubakar, said the GES would be strengthened to reach more small-scale farmers at the local level to make them more productive.

“We have found a way to make it even better. We will soon roll out something that will bridge the gap with the farmers. My concern is to make sure the inputs get directly to the farmers instead of being undermined by middlemen.

“We will do all it takes to make sure the system that would be rolled out gets the input to farmers at the grassroots,” he said.