Stanbic Bank has provided farmers with short term credit to enable them to boost their production capacity and pay for input costs, Mr Douglas Turkson, Agric Relationship Manager of the bank, has said.

Mr Turkson said the loan had given customers access to funds that would traditionally not have been available and that the term of the loan was usually one year and could be extended depending on the cropping cycle.

He was addressing participants at the African Cashew Alliance World Cashew Festival and Expo 2013 in Accra on Wednesday.

Mr Turkson explained that the customer had flexibility in the purchase of supplies as they no longer had to go through co-operatives and that there was reduced risk to the customer with the inclusion of crop insurance.

He said some of the products and services offered to agribusinesses was the provision of specialized banking services structured to meet a client’s specific needs.

Mr Turkson said the provision provided trade finance solutions on a global basis with the emphasis on emerging markets irrespective of country or underlying product.

He added that some of the products and services provided to the agribusinesses in the country included medium term loan, debtor finance, vehicle and asset finance, business term loan and forward exchange contracts.

The ACA was founded in 2005 as a business alliance devoted to promoting a globally competitive African cashew industry that benefits the value chain-from farmer to customer.