Impact of electronic-wallet system on farmer’s welfare in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of e-wallet on farmer’s welfare in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were used to collect information on 81 users and 123 non-users of e-wallet system. Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) analysis was used to profile farmer’s poverty status, while propensity score matching (PSM) was used to assess the impact of e-wallet on welfare using per capita expenditure as its proxy.

Findings

The FGT analysis shows that poverty incidence, depth, and severity were found to be higher among non-users of e-wallet than its users. The PSM analysis showed that e-wallet had a positive impact on welfare; Rosenbaum sensitivity analysis revealed that the findings are sensitive to hidden bias due to unobserved characteristics.

Research limitations/implications

The relevance of matching method depends on data availability for the specific policy problem. Hence, the study is limited to the use of the PSM because of the limitation of household data availability to only a sample of farmers in Oyo State.

Originality/value

This paper examines the impact of the new system of input distribution (e-wallet) on farmer’s welfare.

Citation

Ifeyinwa Umeokeke, N., Olusegun Okoruwa, V. and Adenike Adeyemo, T. (2017), "Impact of electronic-wallet system on farmer’s welfare in Oyo State, Nigeria", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 474-490. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-07-2015-0184