Agriculture & farmer cooperatives · Nigeria

SMS for agribusinesses and farmer cooperatives in Nigeria

Most Nigerian smallholders use a basic phone, and a plain text message is still the most reliable way to tell them when inputs arrive, when an off-taker has paid or when the extension officer is visiting. eSMS Africa helps agribusinesses, processors and farmer cooperatives send those notices to members across every network, timed around the planting and harvest seasons.

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MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile Delivery reports From NGN 9.1 per SMS

AgroLinkTransactional

AgroLink: Your fertiliser (2 bags) and maize seed (10kg) are ready at Zaria collection point, Sat 9 May, 8am. Ref {ref}. Bring your ID.

137 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7

Nigeria context

What makes agriculture & farmer cooperatives messaging different in Nigeria

Smallholders sell to aggregators, processors and off-takers who pay by bank transfer or through agents. A payment SMS stating the weight delivered, the price and the amount transferred builds trust between farmer and buyer.
Planting starts with the rains, earlier in the south than the north, and harvest timing differs by crop and zone. Input distribution, training days and collection dates cluster in those windows, so reminders must be scheduled per region.
Every state runs an Agricultural Development Programme with extension agents who organise farmer meetings and demonstrations. SMS lets an ADP or partner programme reach farmers before an agent visits.
Many farmers read English but prefer Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo for detail. Keep core facts such as dates, quantities and amounts in plain numbers so they are clear in any language.

What to send

Messages agriculture & farmer cooperatives teams in Nigeria send

Input pickup notices

Tell each registered farmer which inputs are allocated to them, the collection point and the date, with a reference to show on arrival. A reminder the day before reduces no-shows.

Off-taker payment receipts

After a delivery is weighed, send the kilograms, the agreed price and the amount transferred, so farmers can check the payment in their bank or agent account.

Training and extension visits

Invite farmers to field days and demonstration plots with the location, time and what to bring, and send a reminder on the morning of the visit through the group leader list.

Market price and weather notices

Send a short weekly price update for key crops at named markets, or a weather warning in the planting window, to farmers who signed up for it.

Cooperative loan and contribution notices

For farmer cooperatives that lend inputs on credit, send the amount owed after harvest, the repayment deadline and a receipt for each repayment made by transfer or at the cooperative office.

Sample messages

Copy-ready templates for Nigeria

Character counts and segments are calculated with the same GSM-7 and Unicode rules used for billing. Replace the example brand and values with your own.

Input pickup Transactional

AgroLink: Your fertiliser (2 bags) and maize seed (10kg) are ready at Zaria collection point, Sat 9 May, 8am. Ref {ref}. Bring your ID.

137 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7

Off-taker payment Transactional

AgroLink: We received 1,250kg of maize from you on 14/10. NGN {amount} has been sent to your account ending {last4}. Ref {ref}.

133 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7

Field day Transactional

AgroLink: Field day on soybean planting, Thu 21 May, 10am, Demo Plot, Ikara road. Come with your group leader.

110 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7

New input offer Promotional

AgroLink: Improved rice seed now available on credit for members, repay after harvest. Ask your group leader. Opt out: SMS STOP to {shortcode}

144 chars · 1 segment · GSM-7

Rules that apply

Compliance for agriculture & farmer cooperatives SMS in Nigeria

A practical summary with sources, not legal advice. Check the regulator's current text for edge cases.

There is no dedicated agriculture category in the NCC partial DND list. Offers for inputs or new products are promotions that networks typically place under consumer goods or new products, so they will not reach DND numbers.
Allocation notices, payment receipts and loan statements for registered members are transactional.
Farmer registers often include ID numbers, bank details and farm locations. These are personal data under the NDPA 2023; keep them out of message text and share them with partners only under a written agreement.
Weather or price information from a third party should name the source and must not be presented as an official government forecast unless it is one.

Across Nigeria

Telecom regulator: Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
Data protection: Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC)
Languages: English, Nigerian Pidgin, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo
Payments: Bank transfer, USSD banking, MoMo PSB, OPay, Moniepoint, PalmPay

The NCC Do-Not-Disturb service lets subscribers text STOP to 2442 to block all promotional messages, or choose partial DND by category (banking, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, tourism, sports, religion and more).
Promotional SMS does not reach numbers on DND. OTPs, alerts and other transactional messages are sent on a separate transactional (corporate) route that operators restrict to non-promotional content.
The Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 gives people the right to object to direct marketing at any time, and processing for marketing must stop once they object.
Sender IDs are approved per network (MTN, Airtel, Glo, T2) and operators apply sending windows to promotional traffic.

Sender ID registration in Nigeria

Send it

From your system to MTN and Airtel in one call

1Create an account and copy a test key (esms_test_...) to try the integration without spending credit.
2Request your sender ID for Nigeria. Until it is approved you can send from the eSMS default sender.
3Call the send endpoint from your app, or upload a CSV in the dashboard with merge fields like {{name}}. Delivery reports arrive by webhook.

Need one-time codes? eSMS Verify generates, sends and checks them in two calls. Full reference in the API docs.

curl -X POST https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/messages/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ESMS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+2348031234567",
    "text": "AgroLink: {name}, NGN {amount} for {kg}kg of {crop} has been sent to your account ending {last4}. Ref {ref}.",
    "sender_id": "AgroLink"
  }'

Live pricing

SMS pricing in Nigeria

Per-SMS rates for one segment, updated live. Pay as you go with no monthly minimum; volume rates apply automatically by monthly spend.

Basic

NGN9.1

per SMS· USD 0.0068

Monthly spend USD 1 - USD 1,000

Business

NGN7.5

per SMS· USD 0.0056

Monthly spend USD 1,001 - USD 4,999

Enterprise

NGN6.1

per SMS· USD 0.0046

Monthly spend USD 5,000+

Estimate a campaign with the SMS cost calculator or compare all countries in the Africa SMS pricing index.

FAQ

Agriculture & farmer cooperatives SMS in Nigeria: common questions

Can farmers on basic phones read these messages?

Yes. Standard SMS works on every handset, including basic feature phones with no data plan. Keep messages in GSM-7 characters, with no emoji or curly quotes, so they fit 160 characters in one segment and display correctly on older phones.

Can we send messages in Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo?

Yes. Hausa and Yoruba written with plain Latin letters fit GSM-7, but Yoruba letters with dots underneath (such as ẹ, ọ and ṣ) and Hausa hooked letters (such as ɓ and ƙ) switch the message to Unicode, which allows 70 characters per segment. Test a sample and check the segment count in the dashboard before a large send.

How do we reach farmers who change numbers often?

Collect a second number at registration, ask group leaders to report changes, and watch delivery reports. Numbers that fail repeatedly should be checked at the next group meeting rather than retried indefinitely, which only adds cost and hides the real problem from your team.