E-WALLET FACILITIES AS AN INNOVATIVE APPLICATION FOR INPUT DISTRIBUTION TO FARMERS FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Abstract

The study identified the application of e-wallet facilities as an innovative application for input distribution to farmers for economic recovery. Two research questions guided the study. The study adopted survey research design and was carried out in Nsukka local government of Enugu state. The population for the study was 54 consisting of 29 lecturers of agricultural education  and 25 lecturers of computer and robotics education from university of Nigeria, Nsukka. There was no sampling because of the manageable size of the population. A 26- item structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was face validated by three experts, each from the Department of Computer and Robotics Education, Department of Agricultural Education and Department of Computer Science (Faculty of Physical Sciences) all in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The data were collected by the researcher with the help of one assistant. The data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and t-test for hypothesis. The study identified that eleven items were the e-wallet facilities available to farmers for effective inputs distribution; Paytm, Mobikwik, among others. It was revealed that there are fifteen ways farmers could benefit in utilizing e-wallet; transferring and receiving money, tracking purchases and information among others. It was recommended among others that the government should ensure the sustainability of the scheme by playing its specified roles as obligated in order to permit long lasting benefits among farmers in their procurement of input to enhance their productivity for economic recovery.