Africa-Press – Uganda. Coffee remains Uganda’s top-earning export crop with a value worth $862.28m (Shs3.2 trillion).
To mark 116 years of operation in Uganda, Stanbic Bank held a coffee tasting ceremony at Serena Hotel to celebrate its investment in agriculture.
Stanbic Bank has been operating in Uganda since 1906, when it used to be the National Bank of India. As a member of the Standard Group, which operates in 20 countries across Africa, the bank marked 160 years with pomp and a reminder of Uganda’s heritage.
Anne Juuko the bank’s chief executive explains that they chose to celebrate this 160-year milestone by recognising two unique actors in post-independence Uganda—coffee and young people.
“We are here with young coffee farmers, and we are treating our guests to a coffee testing experience to honour a crop that has significantly contributed to Uganda’s post-independence fiscal liberation by earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, every year. Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with 77 per cent of our people being under 25 years of age—we are therefore privileged to work with the youth who we regard as one of our 160 reasons to believe in Uganda and Africa,” Juuko says.
Stanbic Bank has been a strong financing pillar in Uganda’s agriculture sector mainly through providing financial support in form of loans, credit facilities and overdrafts to farmers, agro-processors and aggregators, agriculture-related industries, cooperatives and key players in agricultural value chains across the country.
In 2018, for instance, the bank provided facilities worth Shs360b to the agricultural sector. This is by far the largest amount of any commercial bank spending in the sector in Uganda.
Japheth Katto Stanbic Uganda Board Chairman retold the journey of Stanbic and coffee farming in Uganda saying coffee and Uganda’s economic growth are inseparable.
A new generation of farmers
Uganda aims to raise its annual production to an ambitious 20 million 60kg bags by 2025. The opportunity rests heavily on bringing through a new generation of talent.
Coffee is produced by an estimated 1.7 million small-plot coffee farmers from 108 districts, most of whom are aging.
Historically, coffee has been produced by the old people with limited education. For example, some farmers would often strip branches of coffee cherries, rather than carefully picking them. This resulted in unripe green cherries getting mixed up with ripe ones.
As a result, there has been significant emphasis on training up young Ugandans to become competent coffee farmers.
Mara Agribusiness, which produces Aramah Coffee were some of the youth represented at the ceremony. They even conducted a coffee tasting experience.
Mara Agribusiness trains youth farmers throughout the coffee journey to ensure quality and then buys their coffee which they roast, grind and package.
So far, Mara has a total of 1,050 youth coffee farming network and 5,080 traditional coffee farming network across five Robusta and three Arabica coffee growing districts.
Through the network, Mara trains farmers in coffee agronomy and sells agro-inputs to smallholder farmers.
“We are helping young people produce coffee that is concerned about the sustainability of the sector through inclusion in the value chain,” Zipporah Ayebare, a marketing specialist with Aramah Coffee says.
This youth-led agri-business compliments the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) plan of sustainable approaches to coffee production. UCDA and partners often give producers free training, free seedlings, and inputs at subsidised rates such that people who previously had no interest in coffee farming can become accomplished producers.
Prof Patrick Mangheni—Board Chairman, Stanbic Bank Uganda says that giving coffee farmers a push is a symbolic moment of Standard Bank’s contribution to Uganda’s post-independence growth story.
“It is a celebration of the fruits of walking our purpose—Africa is home, we drive her growth,” Prof Mangheni says. “It is not possible to grow Uganda without involving the youth. The future of agriculture, which is still our national mainstay, is in danger if young people are not actively involved in its practice. The Standard Bank Group’s 160th anniversary should inspire the youth of today who are at the start of their entrepreneurial journeys. Our challenge and responsibility as Standard Bank Group is to nurture the young businesses of today, to grow into solid, thriving enterprises that will create jobs, pay taxes and indeed, drive Uganda/Africa’s growth,” he adds.
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