Standard Bank to provide $100 million to farmers

Accra, Sept. 1, GNA - Standard Bank will support farmers in four African countries with $100 million over the next three years to help improve agricultural production and economic growth.

Farmers in Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania would benefit from credit from the Bank in a scheme being run in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to promote agricultural growth on the continent through AGRA's investment in the provision of agricultural loans to small farmers.

Under the scheme, the partners would provide a risk guarantee while Standard Bank will provide the funding for lending.

Mr Clive Tasker CEO for Standard Bank for Africa said this on Wednesday at a media roundtable in Accra ahead of the opening of the conference of the African Green Revolution Forum being held from September 2-4, in Accra.

"Standard Bank takes seriously its role as a facilitator of agricultural growth in Africa. We aim to demonstrate that to turn Africa into a bread basket 96 capable of sustaining itself through successful development initiatives, the private sector needs to roll up its sleeves and join the public sector as it works to build the agricultural capacity of the continent," says Tasker.

He said the Bank was particularly pleased to see this conference finally being held in Africa, the world's greatest potential to successfully address the pressing needs of global food security.

AGRF is a public-private-sector led initiative aimed at forging increased co-operation to drive the development of a sustainable Africa Green revolution.

The theme of the forum is 93Investing in African Agriculture". The forum will also seek to drive transformative change through partnerships to unlock Africa's agricultural growth potential.

It will bring together 250 leaders from African governments, local private sector, farming organisations, global enterprises, development agencies and world experts on agricultural development to drive action within five areas: investment; policy environment; reducing the cost of finance; increasing agricultural productivity; and increasing financial returns to farmers.

Mr Alhassan Andani, Managing Director Stanbic Bank Ghana said total credit support to agriculture; forestry and fishing, formed only 5.1% of loans and advances by commercial banks as at May 2010 this year.

Total Advances in Ghana as at May 2010 stood at GH¢6.8 billion out of which advances to Agriculture was a paltry GH¢0.43 billion

He said there were huge needs for agriculture financing in areas of equipment, warehousing and inputs.

Mr Andani said the bank would leverage on the experience of the Standard Bank Group in agriculture financing to assist in the rollout of enhanced Agriculture services and support systems as well as support the work of private extension in Agriculture enterprise development.

In this direction, he said, the bank had developed a clear strategy to finance Agriculture in Ghana and have dedicated resources to ensure effective delivery of Agriculture offering.

It is also in the development of customised banking products and introduction of risk-mitigating instruments such as weather-index crop insurance.

In all this, Mr Andani said, the bank would build strategic partnership with donors, non-governmental organizations and other reputable organizations in the Agriculture sector to establish the correct linkages, build effective synergies, identify opportunities and assist to bring some structure to the sector through the adoption of the value-chain based financing.