The Managing Director of Agricultural Development Bank (adb), John Kofi Mensah, has re-echoed the bank’s commitment to support agribusiness entrepreneurs to create wealth and grow the economy.
He said that his outfit remains a leading lender to the agricultural sector in the country, and is determined to focus more on the private sector within the agricultural value chain business.
“We want to invest in a new generation of entrepreneurs whose interest will be in agribusiness to create wealth and economic growth.” Dr Kofi Mensah said.
He disclosed that as part of the five-year strategic plan of the bank, the Agribusiness Division has been tasked to grow the total loan portfolio by 50 per cent by the year 2022.
The Managing Director made this known when students of the Agricultural Student’s Career Guidance and Mentorship Dialogue (AG-STUD) boot camp made a familiarisation tour to his office.
New concept
Dr Kofi Mensah told the students that adb will soon launch an innovative loan scheme to enable individuals come together and access funds for the entire agricultural value chain.
According to him, the introduction of this new concept will help minimise the risk of individuals defaulting in loan repayment as a result of post-harvest losses, packaging or marketing.
He advised the youth to take advantage of the government’s agricultural flagship programmes like Planting for Food and Jobs, Rearing for Food and Jobs and Planting for Export and Rural Development to venture into agribusiness.
Dr Kofi Mensah said institutions like the Ghana Commodity Exchange, Ghana Incentive-based Risk Sharing System For Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL) and National Buffer Stock Company have all been established to reduce the risk associated with agriculture.
