Posted on June, 22, 2018 at 09:41 am
By Anne Robi
AFRICAN Agricultural Trade Investment Fund has partnered with Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) Trust in a 30 million US dollar (about 70bn/-) deal to boost the country's agricultural sector.
PASS Managing Director Nicomed Bohay made the revelation in Dar es Salaam yesterday during his meeting with journalists on the new financial opportunity for large agribusiness enterprises.
Mr Bohay said that through the agreement, PASS has signed contracts with 15 commercial banks, including Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank, NMB Bank and CRDB Bank to guarantee loans to farmers.
According to Mr Bohay, the loans will only be approved through showing a guarantee certificate.
Mr Bohay said that farmers face many challenges in accessing loans from banks, saying through PASS, farmers can have their business proposals prepared and guaranteed to access bank loans.
"So far, PASS has been able to approve 730 agricultural, livestock and fishing projects that have generated 1.5 million jobs," he said, adding that for the last year PASS approved 170 projects and is targeting 200 projects, this year.
The African Agricultural Trade Investment Fund, Deutsche Asset Management Samuel Ndonga, said the fund signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation with PASS last May.
"We started talks last year and signed an MoU with PASS early last May to ensure our cooperation is achieved," he said, noting that PASS and the FUND will have open and end fund for food and agribusiness sectors including ensuring availability of improved seeds, fertiliser and food processing.
He said from the project, the Fund had been able to issue 400bn/- and expect to issue 126bn/- this year. Danish Ambassador to Tanzania Einar Jensen said PASS has created more jobs through helping farmers come up with sound business plans and credit facilities.
Source: Daily News