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FINANCE Minister Mwigulu Nchemba has assured the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) of continued support to boost farmers output in the country. According to the minister, the government acknowledges the role of the stateowned development financial institution in developing the
country’s agriculture sector. “You might not be aware of what you are doing, but this is something that President Samia Suluhu Hassan is in aware of”, the minister observed after launching the bank’s Zonal Office here on Tuesday.
Dr Nchemba singled out the bank’s modernisation process, saying it was lending the government solutions to issues pertaining land depletion. Dr Nchemba further emphasised that the government recognises the vast importance of such sectors and continues to give top priority to agriculture as a sure mean to raise the country’s GDP and standards of living of individuals. “We acknowledge your role in strengthening food security, to create jobs by taking active steps to ensure timely and affordable availability of agricultural inputs and to support markets for agricultural produce both locally and internationally,” the minister explained.
He further reassured TADB’s Board and Management about implementation of a recent declaration made by the government, where it announced its intention of giving the state-owned development finance institution and the Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB) additional working capital of 235.9bn/-,
aimed at boosting availability of loans to private sector projects targeted at production and value addition. “Additionally, the government will continue to inject an additional up to 1tri/-, over a period of five to ten years to enable banks to increase their loan offerings to agricultural productive sectors,” he said.
In the same vein, Dr
Nchemba urged TADB
Commercial Officers to frequently visit farmers, saying
such a move will help them
shun blood draining loans.
He equally called on Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga and
Manyara residents to make
the most of the services offered by TADBs Northern
Zone office by applying for
loans and utilising the financial services correctly to improve their projects and paying back the loans on time.
Earlier on, TADB Chief
Executive Officer, Mr Frank
Nyabundege pleaded with the
government to fats-track the
appointment of its new board
members.
The entire board, according to Mr Nyabundege was
only left with three members,
something he said was somewhat affecting the bank’s performance.
On the positive side
though, the TADB CEO revealed that until November
2023, the bank loan portfolio had grown to 600.7bn/-
, whereby 18.18bn/- was
disbursed to Tanga Region,
7.9bn/- to Arusha, 3.2bn/-to
Kilimanjaro and 3.1bn/- was
issued to Manyara farmers.
