Murang’a County Government has launched a new initiative dubbed, Inua Mkulima Agenda.
According to Governor Irungu Kang’ata, the ATM model initiative will allow county residents to access financial support from the government.
He said the county government is seeking to help farmers pay school fees for their children in the new plan that employs the use of a unique e-voucher.
The ATM cards can also be used to shop at pre-selected merchant shops.
“With this card, they can be able to get for free agrovet products like animal feeds, they can also get foodstuff like wheat flour, maise flour and cooking oil, also they can pay school fees,” Kang’ata said.
He said the county currently supports over 20,000 farmers, and disburses Ksh 2,400 every three months to residents registered under the programme.
“Therefore we devised a model called the e-voucher, this card is a model where you create an electronic wallet, load money into it and register farmers then give them the card,” he added.
During shopping trips or paying school fees, the farmers are required to produce the ATM card and their identification details.
After initiating the payment process, the ATM will generate a One-Time Password (OTP), giving the farmers access to the services.
Farmers have to be registered with co-operatives to access the programme.
“For the last one year or so we used to send farmers support to buy inputs directly into your bank account in cash form, for instance for a milk farmer we would send Ksh 3.5 shillings per litre delivered to the cooperative,” Kang’ata added.
