More farmers to get loans as bank expands

Lindi. The Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) is planning to roll out its services country-wide after performing well during the last one year.

The state-run development financial institution which started last year  posted a profit of Sh1.2 billion during the first half of 2016, according to its quarterly financial statement.

The bank which was established as an apex national-level bank with the key role of being a catalyst for delivery of short-, medium- and long-term credit facilities for development of agriculture in Tanzania, currently covers Dar es Salaam,  Coast, Morogoro, Tanga, Iringa and Njombe regions.

“Our target is to start issuing loans to farmers all over the country soon and in fact we have started receiving applications. We will support smallholder and large-scale farmers who add value in the agriculture value chain,” said the bank’s board chairperson Ms Rosebud Kurwijila, during Farmers Day yesterday.

The bank’s loans, advances and overdrafts for the last six months stood at Sh2 billion at the end of June, the statement shows.

The bank’s managing director Mr Thomas Samkyi, said it was impressive to see the bank making profits in the first year of operating and the trend indicated the bright future for Tanzania’s agriculture financing.

“We want to be a model of the agriculture banking in the country and change the sector from the current subsistence farming to commercial agriculture,” he said.

“Our policy is to assess the sector’s value chain and identify the gaps that we can successfully fill them to improve performance of the sector and the economy,” he added. Agriculture is Tanzania’s economic mainstay contributing about 25 per cent to the gross domestic product.