Africa-Press – Tanzania. IN an intentional move to help struggling small farmers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) access loans at concessionary rates and boost agriculture financing in Tanzania, the government has given the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) 25 million US dollars (55bn/-) to guarantee loans applied for by villagers and their SMEs.
During the just-ended budget session, the government pledged to ensure small farmers and agri-SMEs access affordable financial support and boost agriculture financing.
TADB Managing Director, Japheth Justine told reporters here yesterday that their bank has received from the Prime Minister’s Office 25 million US dollars to enable the bank guarantee loans to farmers and their institutions and alleviate the problem of farmers accessing credit.
In Tanzania, banks and financial institutions demand collateral worth between 125 and 150 per cent of the total loan amount applied for. Mr Justine assured vine farmers of financial support from TADB, explaining that vine is one of Tanzania’s strategic cash crops.
“The government knows that small and middle farmers are unable to meet 50 per cent of collateral or loan conditions. To overcome this problem, the government has given our bank 25 million US dollars, over 55bn/-, so that our bank can guarantee loans applied for by farmers in our partner commercial banks. I take this occasion to assure vine growers of getting loans from our bank on concessionary terms,” he assured.
He said vine growers need and deserve finance to increase production and productivity. He told growers that they should not worry about getting loans from TADB because, he said, the bank was established to support farmers.
Mr Justine was speaking to reporters after attending a meeting called and chaired by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa that discussed ways of increasing grape production and processing.
Until last month, TADB has supported vine value chains by disbursing 463,983,800/-, it disbursed 70,000,000/- to build warehouses, 27,025,000/- to secure machines and 366,958,800/- to build infrastructure in vine farming areas.
