Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE TIB Development Bank has so far issued over 60bn/- in agricultural loans to 123 Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), 78 Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Saccos), and 11 banks.
This is part of the bank’s efforts to complement the government’s efforts on boosting the agriculture sector by empowering farmers financially.
Speaking during the ongoing exhibitions on the Agriculture sector, TIB development bank’s manager for fund solicitation Monica Luziro said the money was issued between 2011 to date.
The institution has so far spread to 23 regions and 73 districts in Mainland Tanzania.
“Agriculture loans that are being issued by TIB Investment Bank range from 50m/- to 1bn/- where the client is grace period of up to three years before starting pay back the loan.
This gives the farmer enough time to generate profit from the investment,” she said.
She said, apart from issuing loans, the bank also makes follow-ups to farmers once in a period of three months to observe progress attained, including offering professional advice.
“We have experts in all sectors of production, therefore farmers are in safe hands when they secure loans from us, as they will also be advised by our experts,” she said.
For her part, TIB Investment Bank’s Senior Public Relations Officer, Guisy Mbolile said by Friday bank had managed to receive 22 more clients who are interested in securing agriculture loans.
The bank provided agriculture loans at an interest of 4 per cent for cooperative unions and 5 per cent for SMEs,’ she said.
Agriculture sector that involves crop production, raising and breeding of animals, harvesting of timber and other plants, animals or animal products from a farm or their natural habitats – grew by 4.2 percent in the last quarter of 2021, down from 5.3 percent in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
So far, the agriculture sector has employed around 85 per cent of the Tanzania population, while contributing 25 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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