Posted on August, 5, 2019 at 09:54 am
CRDB Bank Plc has been commended for investing heavily in agriculture through small scale farmers while also lending to private developers to establish industries in line with the government’s development blue-print.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Hussein Bashe said here this week when he visited CRDB’s pavilion at the ongoing agriculture trade fair also known as ‘Nane Nane’ that the bank has over the years come up with tailor made products and services to support smallholder farmers modernise.
“The government appreciates the important role which banks such as CRDB play in supporting the agriculture sector through various products and services such agro-input credit,” Bashe said pointing out that the government will always prepare a conducive environment for the private sector to flourish.
He gave an example of CRDB and ETC Agro’s collaboration to provide modern agro-inputs and equipment to farmers through soft loans targeting mainly smallholder farmers. “I am particularly impressed by your slogan this year which shows how the bank’s management and staff are committed to support this important sector growth towards industrialization and middle income status,” the newly appointed Deputy Agriculture Minister added. CRDB’s latest slogan goes, ‘Our farming, our industries, our economy.’
Briefing the Deputy Agriculture Minister, CRDB’s Director of Retail and Wholesale banking, Boma Raballa said the bank invests heavily in agriculture because it is the backbone of the economy which will also support industrialization with raw materials.
Raballa said CRDB strongly support the government’s efforts to modernise agriculture which is dominated by smallholder farmers with little access to mechanisation and hybrid seeds needed to produce commercially.
In a general, CRDB bank has issued 40 percent of the total credit disbursed to the agriculture sector in the country of which, during the 2018/19 season, over 650bn/- has been issued,” Raballa stated while noting that out of the 650bn/-, 150bn/ or about 23 percent has been dedicated to cash crops, raw materials, agro-input manufacture, agro-processing and distribution.
He said working in partnership with several institutions such Bank of Tanzania, Tanzania Agriculture Development Bank, Private Agriculture Support Services, International Finance Corporation and African Development Bank among others, has also been issuing equipment loans, sensitization on modern farming and trade fair participation.
“In partnership with Mahindra and others, CRDB has continued to sensitise smallholder farmers on agribusiness and commodity marketing,” the CRDB Retail and Wholesale Director, added while stressing that small and medium size farmers are a major target of the bank’s credit facility in agriculture.
Source: IPP Media