The AgroYield Marketplace lets verified businesses list agricultural products and services, and lets buyers browse, order, pay, and review. Payments are held in escrow by AgroYield via our payment processor (Monnify) — the buyer pays at checkout, AgroYield holds the funds until the buyer confirms delivery, and only then are the funds released to the seller's bank account. This protects the buyer from non-delivery and protects the seller from fake "I never received it" claims.
Listing a product
You need a verified business profile and a configured payout bank account first. From Marketplace → Sell, click New listing and fill in:
- Title + description (be specific — "20kg Sokoto-grown brown rice, vacuum-sealed" beats "Rice for sale")
- Category + tags
- Price (per unit, in NGN)
- Stock available (single-unit or multi-unit — see Multi-unit listings)
- Photos (up to 8; the first becomes the cover)
- Delivery options (pickup, local delivery, nationwide courier, willing to ship)
- Lead time (how soon you can fulfil after receiving an order)
- Negotiable (yes/no — see Making and managing offers)
Listings go live immediately. If your business isn't verified yet, the listing is published with a "Verification pending" badge, which most buyers filter out.
Ordering and payment
A buyer clicks Buy now on a listing, picks quantity + delivery option, and is taken to the AgroYield checkout (powered by Monnify). They pay by card, bank transfer, or USSD. On successful payment:
- An order record is created visible to both parties
- Funds are held in escrow in AgroYield's wallet — the seller does not receive money yet
- The seller gets an in-app notification + email with the order details
- The buyer gets an order confirmation with the next-step expectations
Order status starts as Paid — awaiting shipment.
Fulfilment and confirmation
The seller ships the order. From the seller's order detail page, they click Mark as shipped — this records a shipped_at timestamp and starts the auto-release window (currently 7 days). The order moves to Shipped — awaiting confirmation.
The buyer receives the goods and clicks Confirm delivery on their order detail page. This triggers the disbursement: AgroYield deducts the platform fee, sends the rest to the seller's bank account via Monnify, and marks the order Completed.
If the buyer doesn't confirm by the auto-release deadline (7 days after shipping), funds release automatically to the seller. This prevents buyers from holding funds indefinitely after receiving the goods.
Optional buyer-confirm delay
Platform admins can set an optional release-delay window that holds funds for a short period after the buyer clicks Confirm delivery before the seller's bank account is credited. Default is 0 seconds (instant release). When set to a non-zero value (e.g. 1 hour), this gives the buyer a brief window to spot a problem with the goods after marking received and raise a dispute before money moves. Disputes raised inside the window halt the release; the cron only credits orders where no dispute exists.
This setting lives at marketplace_receipt_release_delay_seconds in the Settings Explorer (admin-only). It applies platform-wide; per-buyer or per-seller overrides aren't supported.
Platform fee
AgroYield charges a small platform fee on each completed marketplace sale — see Marketplace fees and payouts for the current rate, who it's deducted from, and how it factors into your pricing. The fee funds the escrow service, payment processing (Monnify costs), dispute mediation, and continued investment in the platform.
Reviews
Buyer-on-seller reviews appear on the seller's listings. Seller-on-buyer reviews are private — they don't appear publicly but are visible to other sellers when the same buyer places another order (helps spot serial-chargeback buyers). You can leave a review once the order is in Completed state.
Disputes
If a buyer reports an order as undelivered, fraudulent, or significantly different from the listing, they click Raise dispute on the order detail page instead of confirming delivery. This:
- Pauses the auto-release window — funds stay in escrow until the dispute resolves
- Notifies the seller and AgroYield support
- Gives the seller 3 working days to respond with their side (proof of shipment, tracking, photos)
AgroYield mediates and resolves in one of three ways:
- Resolved in seller's favour — funds release to the seller, dispute closed
- Resolved in buyer's favour — funds refunded to the buyer (subject to settlement-window timing — refunds typically land in 5-10 business days)
- Partial settlement — agreed split, applied via admin tooling
Persistent disputes lead to the seller losing their verified badge and eventually account suspension.
Cancellation before shipping
Either party can cancel an order before the seller marks it shipped. If the buyer has already paid, the funds are refunded back to the buyer's card/account (5-10 business days to land). If the seller cancels, the buyer gets an apology in-app + the same refund timeline.
Once the order is Shipped, cancellation isn't possible — only confirmation, dispute, or auto-release.