Banking
Standard Bank Partners Rhiza Africa to Boost Farmers’ Yield
In a bid to boost agricultural produce and increase famers’ yield, through innovation, driven by digital intelligence, Standard Bank has partnered with Rhiza Africa.
Standard Bank’s satellite hosted-remote sensing innovation is delivered in partnership with service provider Rhiza Africa and backed by Origin Enterprises PLC and the European Space Agency.
About 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land presents is situated in Africa, which presents a major opportunity to meet the 70 percent increase in global food demand expected by 2050.
Africa also has potentials to grow through dramatically increasing its agricultural yields. However, Africa’s current dependence on traditional small-scale farming techniques returns the lowest yield per hectare globally.
While fertilizer, improved agricultural cultivation and livestock practices as well as better seed (biotech) can help improve yields, by far the biggest opportunity within the grasp of African agriculture lies in ‘agritech’, the intelligent use of data enabled by new digital technologies.
Data therefore presents an opportunity to further boost the yield for African agriculture.
According to Abrie Rautenbach, Head, Agribusiness, Business Banking for Africa Regions at Standard Bank said: “Information is the key to realise Africa’s vast agricultural potential. Digital technologies are merely the tools that will deliver the information.”
As a result of the partnership, farmers and agronomists can take advantage of digital tools developed for the agricultural sector.
Speaking on the tools, Danie Swart, General Manager for RHIZA Africa said: “Contour is an aggregated remote sensing information platform with a complete suite of farm monitoring tools for farmers, whereas GRID is a digital service for financial partners and farmers that helps them grow together.”
Using algorithms to analyse and interpret images, Contour and Grid share data on; local weather, soil moisture, field accessibility and leaf wetness, while also providing optical satellite monitoring of area planted, germination and growth progress. This enables growth stage assessments, yield prediction and ultimately yield-enhancement.
Available on mobile and desktop, Contour is a digital platform and mobile app providing precision farming tools enabling; customer creation, field mapping, agronomic planning and recording, and crop and input allocation.
“Clients can use the information to understand the health of a crop; do fertilizer and spray planning; identify flooded areas; understand ground conditions – such as soil health and moisture levels – and monitor historical weather” Swart added.
The data that Contour provides clients enables farmers to make better decisions while mitigating risks and improving yield through optimised operations. Through soil sampling farmers can also understand in-field conditions and apply inputs to accommodate the specific needs of the soil requirements using fertilizers and lime.
This ‘agritech’ innovation allows farmers and Standard Bank to monitor crop performance on all sizes of farms and fields in all geographic regions. Both Contour and Grid also provide monitoring on an aggregated basis across regions, enabling portfolio tracking on; total hectares under a specific crop and total tonnes of inputs used.
“It is important for Standard Bank to be able to assist farmers to improve yield through relevant information that can provide a view on plant health or development issues with a specific crop. These technologies ensure that the crop is protected and, from a bank perspective, allows any yield (and thus income) increases to be used for either credit repayment or expansion of the agricultural business” Rautenbach stated.
While this information is of huge value in driving the efficiency and productivity of individual farmers, Contour and Grid also enable Standard Bank to identify which fields in a farming area are the best performing. While this allows the bank to asses budgeted against actual yield predictions, it also allows the bank to aggregate this information across wide areas – and work this back to the portfolio of clients that we are supporting.
Contour and Grid also enables Standard Bank to manage the financial risks associated with delivering agricultural finance. Real time visibility of crop performance affords constant updates of all Standard Bank agricultural clients and potential clients, including detailed information on crop development. This builds trust and transparency between the bank and customers, empowering farmers and enabling the bank to correctly asses risk and accurately allocate capital and cover.
Beyond this, however, “information can also inform appetite,” says Mr Rautenbach. For example, if banks and agricultural equipment sellers, know what, of how much, is planted when and where, banks can extend loans, predict income, manage risk and insurance. “Similarly, agricultural suppliers can target informed equipment or irrigation product offerings, at the correct time, to the right farmers at the right price,” he says.
While the current technology appears sophisticated, it is very easy to use. Rautenbach continues: “As our experience in Africa has shown, there is a big opportunity for small scale farmers in out grower programmes supplying large corporates. The corporate that has signed up for the service simply opens the service to all their small-scale suppliers who are then easily able to access all the information required via their mobile phones.”
Even without changing existing value chains in Africa, merely having more and accurate information on what is going on in these chains, presents an immediate opportunity to service, fund, support, risk-manage and supply Africa’s small-scale farmers with a range of services, insights and networking opportunities. From the farmer’s perspective, “the data will dramatically increase yield and boost off take while enriching the efficiency and relevance of Africa’s entire agricultural supply and value chains,” says Mr Rautenbach.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has denied reports that customers performing financial transactions would pay a Value Added Tax (VAT) of 7.5 per cent from January 19, 2026.
Information about this emanated from messages sent out to customers of a financial institution, informing them of the new development in compliance of Nigeria’s new tax laws, especially the Nigeria Tax Act 2025.
It was claimed that Nigerians, as part of efforts of the government to generate more funds from taxes, would begin to pay VAT for the use of banking services like USSD and others.
But reacting in a statement signed by its management on Thursday, January 15, 2026, the tax collecting agency emphasised that the VAT collection for such services was not new.
It stressed that customers have always paid taxes for electronic money transfers and others, as this is charged on the fee, not from the main amount of the transaction.
“The Nigeria Revenue Service wishes to address and correct misleading narratives circulating in sections of the media suggesting that Value Added Tax (VAT has been newly introduced on banking services, fees, commissions, or electronic money transfers. This claim is categorically incorrect.
“VAT has always applied to fees, commissions, and charges for services rendered by banks and other financial institutions under Nigeria’s long-established VAT regime. The Nigeria Tax Act did not introduce VAT on banking charges, nor (sic) did it impose new tax obligation on customers in this regard.
“The Nigeria Revenue Service urges members of the public and all stakeholders to disregard misinformation and to rely exclusively on official communications for accurate, authoritative, and up-to-date tax information,” the statement read.
Business Post reports that what this basically means is that if a customer sends N10,000 and the bank charges N50 for the service, a 7.5 per cent VAT on the N50, which is N3.75, would be paid by the sender, not N750, which is 7.5 per cent of N10,000.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian-born payments company, Paystack, has announced its entry into the banking sector with the launch of Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB) after the acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank.
The bank continues Paystack’s push into consumer products and adds a banking layer to its business-focused payment product, coming ten years after the company was founded with the goal of simplifying payments for businesses using modern technology.
In Nigeria alone, the company says its systems process trillions of Naira every month, supporting more than 300,000 businesses and millions of customers. According to Paystack, this growth highlighted a broader need beyond payments, prompting the decision to build a more comprehensive financial offering.
Paystack MFB will begin lending to businesses before expanding to consumers. It will also offer banking-as-a-service (BaaS) products to companies building financial products and treasury management products.
The company explained that while payments are a critical part of the financial journey, businesses and individuals increasingly require a full financial operating system. This includes the ability to store money securely, move funds easily, gain clarity from financial data, and access tools that support long-term growth. Developers, Paystack added, also need reliable, secure, and compliant infrastructure to build new financial solutions efficiently.
To address these needs, Paystack said it has established Paystack Microfinance Bank as a separate and independent entity from Paystack Payments Limited.
The new microfinance bank operates with its own license, governance structure, and product roadmap, although it will work closely with its sister company.
“By adding Paystack MFB to our family of brands, we’re finding the right balance through combining the rapid innovation of a tech-first platform with the stability of traditional banking,” said Ms Amandine Lobelle, Paystack’s chief operating officer.
Last year, it launched its controversial consumer payments app Zap, and now it is taking a step further with the company securing regulatory backing to become a deposit-taking institution. According to a statement, the bank will be guided by the same principles that shaped Paystack’s early success, including reliability, simplicity, transparency, and trust.
Paystack MFB has begun operations with a small group of early members and plans a gradual rollout to more businesses and individuals. The company also announced the opening of a waitlist for interested users and confirmed it is recruiting a dedicated team to help build its long-term banking infrastructure.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has helped First Bank of Nigeria to recover the sum of N802.4 million from a suspect, Mr Kingsley Eghosa Ojo, who unlawfully took possession of over N1.3 billion belonging to the bank.
The funds were handed over the financial institution by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the anti-money laundering agency on Monday, January 12, 2026, a statement on Tuesday confirmed.
First Bank approached the EFCC for the recovery of the money through a petition, claiming that the suspect received the money into his account after system glitches.
The commission in its investigation; discovered that the suspect, upon the receipt of the money, transferred a good measure of it to the bank accounts of his mother, Mrs Itohan Ojo and that of his sister, Ms Edith Okoro Osaretin, and committed part of the money to completion of his building project and the funding of a new flamboyant lifestyle.
With the recovery of the money from the identified bank accounts, the EFCC handed it over in drafts to First Bank.
While handing over the lender, the acting Director for the Directorate, Mr Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, stressed his organisation would continue to discharge its mandate effectively in the overall interests of society.
“The EFCC Establishment Act empowers us to trace and recover proceeds of crime and restitute the victim. In this case, First Bank was the victim and that is exactly what we have done.
“We will continue to discharge our duties to ensure that fraudsters do not benefit from fraud and that economic and financial crimes are nipped in the bud,” he said.
In his response, the Business Manager for First Bank in Benin City, Mr Olalere Sunday Ajayi, who received the drafts on behalf of the bank, commended the EFCC for the swiftness and the professionalism it brought to bear in the handling of the matter and expressed the bank’s gratitude to the commission.
He described the EFCC as one of Nigeria’s most effective and reliable institutions.
Meanwhile, Mr Kingsley and all other suspects in the matter have been charged to court for stealing by the EFCC.
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