Your business wallet on AgroYield Network is real money. Anyone who can sign in to your business account can, in principle, approve a payout — and once a Monnify disbursement fires, the money is on its way and we can't recall it. This article walks through every safety layer we put between an approve click and a fired payout, and how to configure them for your business.
The PIN gate
Every payout approval above your business's threshold (default ₦50,000) requires a 6-digit Payout PIN. The PIN is separate from your account password — it's specifically for payout authorisation, and it sits in a 5-minute session window after you enter it (so a single PIN entry lets you approve a sequence of batches without re-entering, but the window closes quickly if you walk away).
To set your PIN: open /business/settings/security, scroll to "Payout PIN", click "Set or change PIN", enter the 6-digit code twice. You'll be asked for it the next time you click Approve on a batch above the threshold.
If you forget your PIN, you don't have to wait for an admin to reset it — see the "Forgot PIN" fallback below.
Forgot PIN — email or SMS OTP fallback
When you click Approve and don't remember your PIN, click "Forgot PIN? Email or text me a code" on the PIN prompt. Choose Email or SMS. We'll send a 6-digit one-time code that satisfies the same gate for one approve.
The code expires in 10 minutes. After 3 wrong attempts the code locks and you have to request a new one. Receiving the code does NOT replace your PIN — it just unlocks this one approve. Set or change your PIN at /business/settings/security if you've forgotten it permanently.
SMS uses your verified phone number on your profile; email uses your verified login email. If either is wrong, update them at /account before triggering the fallback.
MFA step-up — for business owners with TOTP enrolled
If you have two-factor authentication (TOTP) enrolled on your account, we'll ask for a fresh authenticator code before the PIN prompt on any payout approval. This is called "step-up" — your normal login is at AAL1 (assurance level 1), and approve actions require AAL2 (verified-in-the-last-few-minutes).
The flow: click Approve → enter your authenticator code → enter your PIN → approve fires. The two prompts chain automatically; you don't have to click anything between them.
If you don't have TOTP enrolled, this step is skipped — you go straight to PIN. To enrol, open /account/security and follow the "Set up two-factor authentication" wizard. We strongly recommend TOTP for any business owner approving payouts above ₦100,000.
Per-business PIN threshold
The platform default PIN threshold is ₦50,000 — any batch at or above this amount requires PIN. You can raise or lower it for your specific business at /business/settings/security under "Payout PIN threshold."
Use cases:
- A small business making frequent ₦5,000 supplier payments might keep the default — most approves are below threshold and don't need PIN, which keeps the workflow fast.
- A larger business making mostly ₦200,000+ payroll runs might lower the threshold to ₦20,000 so even the smallest approve requires PIN.
- A business with junior staff trusted only to handle small reimbursements might keep the default low to force PIN on anything material.
The threshold setting is per-business, so you can tune each of your businesses independently. Only the business owner (not accountants or junior staff) can change this setting.
Velocity cap (24-hour rolling)
In addition to the per-batch PIN threshold, you can set a velocity cap — the total Naira amount of approved batches in the trailing 24 hours that can be approved without further intervention. If this batch + the trailing-24h total would exceed the cap, the approve is refused with a friendly 409 explaining how much room is left.
Default is no cap (unlimited). Configure at /business/settings/security under "Payout velocity cap." Useful if your business is exposed to a credential-theft scenario where an attacker could otherwise drain the wallet in one session.
First-batch cooldown
A brand-new business can't approve a payout for the first N minutes after creation (default 10 minutes). This is a cool-off period — if a fraudster manages to create a business account, top up a wallet, and try to disburse all in one session, the cooldown prevents the immediate cash-out.
You'll see a countdown on the approve button during the cooldown window. The cooldown is platform-configurable; business owners can adjust their own setting at /business/settings/security.
The wallet-freeze link (one-click revoke)
After every payout approve, we send you an email and an SMS confirming the approve. Both messages include a one-click "I didn't authorise this — freeze my wallet" link.
Clicking the link:
- Freezes your wallet immediately — no further disburses can fire until the wallet is unfrozen.
- Cancels any in-flight batches that haven't yet been disbursed.
- Surfaces a banner on
/business/payoutsshowing your wallet is frozen, with instructions for how to unfreeze.
The link is single-use and expires in 24 hours. It does NOT require you to be logged in — the canonical case is you see the notification on your phone, realise you didn't authorise the action, and tap Freeze without having to log in via an unfamiliar device.
To unfreeze: contact your AgroYield admin (or, if you are the admin, open /admin/wallets, find the frozen wallet, click Unfreeze with reason). Unfreezing requires admin auth — the asymmetry is intentional (low cost of false-positive freeze, high cost of false-positive unfreeze).
What if I'm locked out?
If you've lost your PIN, your TOTP authenticator, and your phone for SMS — contact support@agroyield.africa from your verified login email. We can reset your PIN after identity verification (typically within one business day). Outside business hours, the wallet-freeze flow above is your fastest safety affordance.
Why these layers exist
Payment fraud is the single biggest existential risk for an early-stage Nigerian agritech. A single unauthorised ₦400,000 payroll batch firing through our rail and out of your wallet would be catastrophic — for you (the money is gone), for us (trust collapses, regulators take notice), and for the rest of the businesses on our rail (we may have to suspend disburses platform-wide until we understand the exposure). The PIN gate, OTP fallback, MFA step-up, velocity cap, first-batch cooldown, and freeze link are five independent safety layers, each individually defeatable but collectively very hard to bypass. The cost of each layer is small (a few extra seconds at approve time); the cost of any single payout-fraud incident is enormous. Configure them aggressively for your business — the friction is worth it.