CRDB goes to southern regions farmers

Masasi. CRDB Bank Plc took its services to farmers in the southeastern regions of the country yesterday, targeting to earn an increased pie of the market that comes with farming in the areas.

Bank’s southern zone manager Jenifa Tondi told a forum of leaders for farmers’ cooperative societies from Mtwara, to grasp the opportunities offered by the lender to farmers in the areas.

CRDB Bank Plc organised the forum, seeking to outline its services and products that are deliberately meant to empower farmers.

The southeastern zone comprises of three regions of Mtwara, Ruvuma and Lindi.

“In the endeavour to empower farmers, we have come up with a slogan that says: ‘Our Agriculture, Our Industries, Our Economy’. The slogan guides us in issuing loans for farm inputs and farming operations; connecting farmers to buyers and extending financial literacy education to them (farmers),” she said.

She said last year alone, CRDB issued a total of Sh16.9 billion in loans to help cashew nut farmers, specifically in areas of buying farm inputs and storage materials for the crop.

Part of the money went to farmers’ primary cooperative societies.

The CRDB Masasi Branch manager, Mr Amani Madale, told farmers to make use of the bank’s agent banking platform that’s known as FahariKilimo.

“This service will directly link the farmer to SimBanking and thus enable the farmers to transact via his/her mobile phone. Apart from agents, he/she can also transact via Automated Teller Machines (ATMs),” she said.

The manager for the Masasi and Mtwara Cooperative Union, Mr Joseph Mmole, said the forum issued farmers a vital platform to learn what they were required to do to get loans from the bank.