Mr Solomon Awini, Former General Manager of the BESSFA Rural Bank, in the Bawku area in the Upper East Region, has charged Rural Banks to create enabling environment for the youth to access loans for agricultural purposes.

Mr Awini noted that the future of agriculture depended on the youth and urged the Banks to encourage them to form farmer groups to be supported with loans to enable them go into farming.

Mr Awini who has just retired from the rural banking sector made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Garu in the Garu District of the Upper East Region and said the youth was the driving force for national development and indicated that if they were encouraged to venture into farming, they would acquire good agronomy skills to produce quality food for the population.

Mr Awini disclosed that the purpose for establishing the BESSFA Rural Bank was to promote excellence in rural agricultural business for food security.

He indicated that when the youth ventured into agriculture, it would foster the fast growth of the local economy and improve on the livelihoods of the people, adding that it would enable the farmers pay back their loans on time.

He urged Rural Banks to support the youth to go into consultation with stakeholders including the Department of Food and Agriculture and Farmer Based Organizations (FBO) to give them expert advice.

The Veteran Banker further urged farmers to comply with the directives of MOFA and stick to the methods and prescribed seeds given out to them in order to get good harvest.

He stressed the need for Rural Banks to focus on youth in Agriculture and said they were the backbone of the national economy.