News
Over 100,000 Farmers Benefit from Social Lender-OCP Africa Collaboration
As part of efforts to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians in the rural communities during the Covid-19 crisis, over 100,000 smallholder farmers have got personalized financial services, even as Social Lender – a fintech company and OCP Africa – one of the largest fertilizer companies in Africa are working together.
More than 60% of smallholder farmers in Nigeria do not have Bank Verification Number (BVN) and are currently unbanked or under-banked. To alleviate this problem, Social Lender has collaborated with OCP Africa to bring financial services to Nigerians especially those in the value chain.
Millions of smallholder farmers lack BVN. It is one of many indicators of the absence of financial inclusion. This has led to a lack of economic inclusion and poverty among these farmers and other stakeholders.
Caleb Usoh, the Country Manager, OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria, said that the aim of the partnership “is to ensure financial inclusion of a larger percentage of smallholder farmers in the country through BVN registrations and financial literacy training”.
According to him, the collaborative effort will alleviate their sufferings and help them to improve their lives.
He added that the collaboration with Social Lender would help to prepare the farmers to gain access to competitive financial services provided by top institutions in Nigeria and beyond, and help improve their livelihood.
Explaining how the partnership was formed with Social Lender, Usoh said the company emerged as one of the winners of the prized grant of the OCP-supported Impulse Start-up Accelerator challenge fund programme.
“This has boosted the partnership and is reflected in the increased number of beneficiaries who have accessed the services on offer”, he said.
The partnership would allow Social Lender the opportunity to leverage OCP Africa’s existing 51 retail input distribution hubs called the One Stop Shop, which is spread across rural farming communities in Nigeria.
Social Lender would provide several services to the farmers which include a series of financial literacy training, financial inclusion through the creation of BVN accounts, mobile money and credit profiling as well as helping the farmers to obtain small scale loans.
Faith Adesemowo, the Chief Executive Officer of Social Lender, reiterated the importance of the partnership by inviting other organisations interested in serving the huge market segment to collaborate with Social Lender. She informed that her company “is currently building a low cost distribution infrastructure” model needed to serve the unbanked and under banked.
“We are building an innovative solution to serve this market effectively. The Social Reputation score is our main asset. For the offline market, we have started with a pilot in 2018 with CGAP, a division of the World Bank. Working with EFINA, we have scaled to six states including two Northern states. With OCP Africa partnership, we will add 31 locations and cover 14 states,” she said.
Adesemowo said the company is a fintech that works across all industries. “We have just chosen to have a strategic focus in agriculture due to the fact that a large number of the financially excluded are a part of this demography. Social Lender may someday become a full agritech but for now, we are fintech working in agriculture”, she said.
The Chief Operating Officer of Social Lender, Mudiaga Ogboru said that partnership with OCP has further unlocked the value in the agricultural value chain, as more farmers have gained access to formal financial service like agro-loans, equipment leasing financing, fertilizer on credit, quality seeds and other agro-necessity.
“We are building a network for trust, credit and much more. For us, financial literary is the bedrock for financial inclusion and economic inclusion. We have built a robust financial literacy curriculum that is sufficiently equipped and digestible to the farmers because it is communicated in a language that is most comfortable for the farmers,” he said.
Many farmers have already benefited from the partnership. One of them, Jibril Mansur, from Kaduna, lauded the initiative. He has joined the financial ecosystem programme because it was brought to his community.
Hajiya Aisha, another beneficiary from Kano expressed how the opportunity has changed her life. She is currently gradually being upgraded from an unbanked customer with no bank account, BVN, and access to credit into the formal financial system. “This is a level 10 on Social Lender’s digital financial inclusion journey”, Ogboru explained.
Ogboru said the partnership was launched as part of the OCP Africa Covid-19 palliative intervention which was implemented in 32 locations across 12 states in Nigeria.
New data from CFA Society Nigeria is reshaping how the country’s financial sector thinks about talent development, with Access emerging as the single largest source of CFA candidates in Nigeria, distinction industry watchers say signals a deeper shift in how leading institutions are building investment expertise from within.
In its Where Nigeria’s Finance Professionals Work series, published in a national daily, CFA Society Nigeria placed Access first among employers of CFA candidates nationwide, with 82 candidates enrolled in the programme, more than double the 38 recorded at the next-placed institution and well ahead of every other bank or financial services firm on the list.
Access also ranked second among employers of CFA charterholders, with 11 professionals who have completed all three levels of the Programme and met its experience and ethics requirements.
For an industry that has long measured itself by balance sheet size and branch count, the rankings point to a different kind of competition: one over who is building the deepest bench of certified, globally credentialed talent.
CFA Society Nigeria compiled the data from its Salesforce Membership Database as at June 2026, and described the exercise as a way of recognising employers whose people “bring rigour, integrity and global best practices into the workplace every day.”
Analysts following the sector say the outcome is notable less for the ranking itself than for what it suggests about talent strategy across Africa’s financial services industry. A single institution developing more aspiring charterholders than the rest of the market combined raises the floor for professional standards nationally, not just within one balance sheet.
Every candidate who advances through the CFA Programme adds to a shared pool of ethics-trained, analytically rigorous professionals that Nigeria’s capital markets, pension funds and asset managers all eventually draw from.
Access Holdings Group Chief Executive Officer Innocent C. Ike, commenting on the rankings, framed the achievement in terms of institution-building rather than recruitment: “Every candidate on that list represents our commitment to building institutions and professionals that endure.”
The remark echoes a broader thesis increasingly voiced by market observers, that talent depth, not scale alone, is what will determine which African financial institutions earn lasting global credibility.
That distinction sits at the centre of Access’s stated ambition to become the World’s Most Respected African Financial Services Group. If the CFA numbers are any indication, the Group’s route to that goal runs less through square metres of branch network and more through the calibre of the people sitting inside it, a bet that Nigeria’s finance professionals, and the institutions that will one day hire them, are already placing alongside Access.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced plans to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) baggage tracking technology across domestic and international airport terminals to tackle the growing problem of delayed, misrouted and missing luggages
Michael Achimugu, director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCAA, disclosed this at a stakeholder engagement forum in Lagos.
Achimugu said the RFID-enabled system would replace the traditional barcode-based baggage tracking framework and provide airlines and passengers with real-time visibility of checked luggage from check-in to final collection.
According to him, the technology would improve baggage traceability, reduce mishandling and strengthen accountability across the baggage-handling chain.
Unlike conventional barcode systems, RFID technology allows baggage to be automatically scanned at multiple points without requiring direct line of sight, enabling real-time tracking of luggage throughout its journey.
Achimugu said issues involving short-landed, missing, lost or damaged baggage had remained among the major complaints from air travellers, alongside flight delays.
He said the introduction of RFID technology was therefore aimed at improving baggage-handling standards and restoring passenger confidence in the aviation sector.
The NCAA said the initiative also aligns with IATA Resolution 753, which requires airlines to track baggage at key points during the passenger journey.
The authority expects the technology to provide more accurate information on the location of luggage, facilitate quicker resolution of baggage-related complaints and improve the overall passenger experience.
The NCAA said the initiative would also strengthen accountability among airlines and other stakeholders involved in baggage handling at Nigerian airports.
eTranzact International Plc has called for increased adoption of digital payment solutions among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), saying access to technology is critical to improving business efficiency, financial inclusion and growth.
The company also said it was deepening its partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to expand digital access and financial literacy among small businesses across the country.
In a statement, the Divisional Head, Merchant Services, eTranzact, Mrs. Abimbola Reis, stated this at the SMEDAN/eTranzact Town Hall Engagement in Lagos recently, themed, “Financial Literacy and Inclusion for MSMEs Leveraging on Fintech Innovation.”
Reis described MSMEs as the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, noting that the sector comprises almost 40 million businesses and contributes significantly to economic growth and job creation.
However, she said many businesses continue to face challenges including limited access to finance, inefficient payment systems, weak financial reporting, cash-flow constraints and inadequate access to digital platforms.
She added that trust concerns also affect businesses’ ability to access finance, while heavy reliance on cash increases exposure to theft and makes payment reconciliation more difficult.
Representing the Director-General of SMEDAN, Prof. Yinka Fisher said the town hall was aimed at generating practical ideas and solutions that would support the growth and expansion of MSMEs.
“The essence of this engagement is to share ideas and concepts that will help MSMEs thrive and expand. Our partnership with eTranzact is about expanding the frontiers of MSMEs and ensuring they continue to grow,” he said.
Also speaking, representative of the Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. Praise Adedigba said businesses could no longer depend solely on hard work to remain competitive.
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