Cashew farmers borrowed Sh67 bn from three banks

Mtwara. Three banks disbursed Sh66.9 billion in loans to cashew farmers and the industry in general during the 2018/19 season, the banks’ officials revealed.

NMB bank issued Sh38 billion, CRDB bank (Sh16.9 billion), while the Bank of Africa (BoA) provided Sh12 billion.

Speaking at a cashew stakeholders meeting in Mtwara on Monday, the CRDB bank manager for the Southern Zone, Ms Jenipher Tombi, said: “We are ready to lend more money to farmers during the 2019/20 season to support development of the industry and provision of education on agriculture insurance and proper expenditure of their earnings.”

NMB bank officer Richard Magoma said the bank issued Sh20 billion to farmers, out of which, Sh18 billion had been lent to buyers and other stakeholders.

“At least 150,000 cashew farmers have opened accounts with us, we are obliged to support them . We encourage them to establish processing industries and we promise our full support,” he said.

BoA bank manager for the Southern Zone Emmanuel said Sh12 billion had been borrowed to farmers, Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (Amcos), cooperative unions, exporters and processors during the 2018/19 season.

“The bank has scrapped several costs of operating farmers’ accounts to enable them to remain active throughout the year,” he said, noting that loans were provided to small, medium and large scale farmers.

The Tigo Tanzania manager for Mtwara Region, Mr Eric Stephen, said through the TigoKorosho project, 40 Amcos and 22,000 farmers received payments through mobile money transfers last season.

“We are determined to improve our services this season to reduce inconveniences and ensure farmers are timely paid,” he said.

The stakeholders meeting was attended by deputy minister for Agriculture Omary Mgumba, regional commissioners for Mtwara, Gelasius Byakanwa, Tanga (Martine Shigella), Coast (Evarist Ndikilo), Trade and Industry permanent secretary, Prof Joseph Buchweshaija and Mr Christopher Ndumbiagai, who represented Lindi Regional Commissioner Godfrey Zambi. Others who attended the meeting are regional and administrative secretaries from cashew-growing regions, district executive directors, exporters, buyers, transporters and representatives of farmers. Citizens’ representatives including Mtama MP Nape Nnauye, Mtwara Rural legislator Hawa Ghasia, Mkuranga lawmaker Abdallah Ulega and Nanyamba MP Abdallah Chikota also attemded the meeting. Stakeholders endorsed commencement of 2019/20 cashew trading season which was officially announced to start on September 30, 2018.