Business
Etche Farmers Count Losses After Windstorm
Farmers in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State are counting their loses following a heavy windstorm that destroyed farm crops and other economic trees in the area on Monday.
Our correspondent who monitored the development reports that plantains, pear trees and farm crops were mainly affected.
Apart from the economic trees and crops, two houses were equally damaged in Mba town.
Chief Nnadozie Nwuzi told The Tide in Mba that the first rain that fell in the area had become a curse to farmers as property worthy millions were lost due to the windstorm that came with the storm.
“You can barely see any plantain tree standing because the windstorm destroyed them en mass, so also pear trees and other economic trees.
“This is coming few days after a wild fire burnt large portions of farmland due for cultivation”, he said.
Some of the affected farmers who spoke to The Tide narrated their experience and explained that the wild fire and windstorm would affect their harvest in this farming season.
Chairman, Etche Farmers Co-operatives Association, Mr Godwin Akandu told The Tide that the development is a set back in view of the great loss incurred by his members.
Commenting on the wild fire, Akandu condemned the attitude of some elements in the society who were in the habit of handling fire sources carelessly.
He said, so far, those behind the fire incident have not been identified and regretted that farmers in the area suffer such loses yearly.
The farmers’ boss stressed the need for communities to punish persons found to be burning farm lands indiscriminately to check the ugly trend.
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Business
BVN Enrolments Rise 6% To 67.8m In 2025 — NIBSS
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said that Bank Verification Number (BVN) enrolments rose by 6.8 per cent year-on-year to 67.8 million as at December 2025, up from 63.5 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
In a statement published on its website, NIBSS attributed the growth to stronger policy enforcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the expansion of diaspora enrolment initiatives.
NIBSS noted that the expansion reinforces the BVN system’s central role in Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive and digital identity framework.
Another major driver, the statement said, was the rollout of the Non-Resident Bank Verification Number (NRBVN) initiative, which allows Nigerians in the diaspora to obtain a BVN remotely without physical presence in the country.
A five-year analysis by NIBSS showed consistent growth in BVN enrolments, rising from 51.9 million in 2021 to 56.0 million in 2022, 60.1 million in 2023, 63.5 million in 2024 and 67.8 million by December 2025. The steady increase reflects stronger compliance with biometric identity requirements and improved coverage of the national banking identity system.
However, NIBSS noted that BVN enrolments still lag the total number of active bank accounts, which exceeded 320 million as of March 2025.
The gap, it explained, is largely due to multiple bank accounts linked to single BVNs, as well as customers yet to complete enrolment, despite the progress recorded.
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