Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Agricultural Bank of Namibia (Agribank) and the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation and co-finance controlled environment agriculture activities in the country.
Controlled environment agriculture finance aims to provide land and facilities that enable consistent productivity with infrastructure that reduces the impact of drought and variable weather.
This could include the use of hydroponics, vegetable tunnels, green schemes and aquaculture.
According to DBN’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Martin Inkumbi, the bank decided to focus on controlled environment agriculture because the industry inherently mitigates many risks that are usually associated with agriculture.
This, he added, greatly reduces the risk DBN would have to mitigate and manage in the agricultural sector, which is ideal, given the bank’s limited background in agriculture.
The MoU, which will be valid for the next two years, recognises the joint interest of Agribank and DBN in promoting agriculture as a route to economic activity and food security.
The MoU therefore allows the banks to identify parallel opportunities of mutual interest, giving both institutions the opportunity to collaborate on finance for controlled environment agriculture.
Agribank’s CEO, Dr Raphael Karuaihe, said collaboration with other institutions to combine financing resources speaks directly to the bank’s strategic initiative of targeting high impact projects to transform the country’s economy and agriculture sector.
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