Moving the Agriculture Value Chain Forward in Nigeria: A Review of Digital Technology Trends in Financing Agriculture

Abstract

Nigeria’s telecommunication industry has developed since the privatization of the telecommunication industry in the early dispensation of the Fourth Republic in 1999. It has positive transformational development of some sectors of the economy with an impact on the growth, and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of businesses in banking and finance, oil and gas, taxation, and energy sectors with reliance on the development of software and programs and hardware. The neglect of digital technology for an internet economy in the agriculture sector financing can be argued to be a contributor to the negative effect of the overall social system in Nigeria. If there is an increase in digital technology financial services for the agricultural sector in the rural areas in Nigeria, then there will be an increase in agricultural financing agricultural productivity, and agricultural performance. The objectives of this paper are - 1. To examine the problems of digital technology limiting financial agricultural funds in private, public, and international financial institutions and agencies and agricultural sector productivity. 2. To identify the research gaps in digital technology financial services that limit agricultural funding in Nigeria. This paper is structured around multidimensional approaches with emphasis on the theories of development which include the Big Man Theory of Thomas Carlyle, the Management Theory of Frederick Taylor, the Structural Functional Theory of Talcott Parson and Robert K Merton, the Modernization Theory of Emile Durkheim, the Human Needs Theory of David McClelland and Maslow, and Integration Theory of Niemann and Bergmann. The method used for data collection is a secondary source and is based on the review of two journal papers and two international conferences published in journals and academic websites related to financing agriculture and seven digital technology papers that relate to the problem of financial exclusion for agricultural smallholder farmers.The findings reveal a lack of a structural framework that supports developed software and hardware and a lack of a universal API that provides financial services to marginalized rural farmers in rural areas. The absence of checks and balances in accounting and the absence of agricultural extension workers limits the services of monitoring and evaluation of agricultural funds and smallholder farmers. It is recommended that digital technology be applied to provide financial inclusion for marginalized farmers in rural areas.