By Assan Bah
Since its introduction into the groundnut trade season in 2021, ‘Qmoney’ has been used to replace credit buying of farmers’ groundnuts across the country.
The latter was a process when a farmer was given a promissory note to collect his or her money from a groundnut buying point when money was available at a Secco. However, with the current process, a farmer is paid through his or her ‘Qmoney’ account, a form of money transfer through a mobile phone wallet. The system also permits farmers to receive payment through their optionally preferred money transfer agencies through ‘Qmoney’.
At the commencement of the current process in 2021, two people were deployed in each Secco to aid the farmer get his or her money as cash-in or cash-out agents.
However, since no system works without hitches, many farmers described the ‘Qmoney’ process of receiving their hard-earned sweat as slow and frustrating from its introduction in 2021 until now.
According to Foroyaa’s recent publication on the subject, many farmers lamented that they find it difficult to access their monies with the current ‘Qmoney’ system, and complained that the process does not favour them because it is slow.
Some Secco presidents also raised their voices and lamented their frustrations with the current process of paying farmers. They said the process is slow and frustrating for most of them and called for the return of the previous process when they received hundreds of thousands of Dalasi in bulk cash, even though they know that this process has serious negative security implications for most of them.
To clarify matters for the public, this medium spoke to Abdoulie S. Khan, Coordinator, and Liaison Officer of the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the country.
According to Mr. Khan, the current process has come to curb theft, fraud, and fire incidents among other risks associated with handling bulk cash over the years. He added the idea of introducing a cashless form of payment to farmers was agreed by all cooperative societies as a replacement to the physical handling of bulk cash in Seccos, for safety reasons.
Mr. Khan said the Qmoney process of payment is more assuring and secure for farmers whose hard-earned sweat used to be given to them on a piece of paper referred to as a promissory note. He said no security was given to farmers regarding this promissory note in case of loss or whatever, adding that the advent of ‘Qmoney’ eliminated credit buying and has given farmers more security to account for their monies in safe and secure accounts.
According to Mr. Khan, the GGC has been given a loan facility to buy farmers’ groundnuts to ensure a smooth groundnut trade free from fraud. He disclosed that previously, Secco presidents used to handle raw cash in huge amounts, which has had some negative security implications on both farmers and the sector. He said certain Seccos have lost monies due to insecurity, and that most farmers have gone without receiving their monies for months, because of such anomalies.
Mr. Khan said the days of moving with huge amounts of cash have long gone, because of the insecurity it carries. He said many countries within the subregion make financial transactions in such huge sums of money in the comfort and security of their mobile phones and said the Gambia should not be left behind. He acknowledged the complaints from farmers that they are limited to receiving a certain amount and will not be paid beyond this ceiling. He however clarified that this has been settled with their partners and the amount that the farmer can receive has been increased substantially.
“If their groundnut is weighed, farmers will decide how they want to receive their monies and will also have the option to cash it either from ‘Qmoney’, or from their optionally preferred cash transfer agency. Concerns were indeed raised by the farming community, which is quite understood to be normal because new systems and processes always come with such hitches and will require a lot of sensitization. We have come to a compromise that instead of making it purely ‘Qmoney’, we will avail other options for the farmers that are incorporating the process with other sister mobile transfer agencies of their choice, in the country,’’ Khan said.
Khan also clarified that the recent frustration of the farmers arose when money was sent to the Secco presidents’ accounts who according to him went ahead to start buying farmers’ produce when no ‘Qmoney’ agent was around at the Seccos.
“When we learned about this, we sat and discussed the matter at a technical meeting we had. During the meeting, ‘Qmoney’ officials informed us that their agents were supposed to leave on Tuesday, December 24th for their designated Seccos,” he said. “The team which first departed was there for sensitization and to help farmers with the registration process,’’ Khan said.
He further said that farmers raised the issue of charges for the service, at a time when the QGroup Chairperson said it was supposed to be free.
‘‘The QGROUP team however said the first disbursement was without those charges but this has now been resolved and all the charges have been paid by QGROUP and farmers will cash out for free. Some areas had also complained about the network, but QGROUP said they are working to address the issue, while some lamented the insufficient training on the process,’’ he said.
Mr. Khan assured that all ‘Qmoney’ agents are expected to be at their designated Seccos by Tuesday, December 24th, and said ‘Qmoney’ is in partnership with other financial institutions that are already present on the ground. He concluded by asserting that in areas where there is no ‘Qmoney’ outlet, other financial institutions such as Supersonic, EASY Financing, and YONNA money transfer agents will be readily available on the ground, to carry out these transactions for any farmer who needs cash.
