In Summary
Kigali. Micro-finance institutions, through
their umbrella Association of Microfinance Institution of Rwanda (Amir),
have unveiled plans to rollout agriculture loans.
Under the arrangement, farmers will be given low
interest credit and repay it after harvesting and selling their crops,
Amir officials said.
Mr Jean Desire Usabyimana, a credit director at
Umwalimu Sacco, yesterday said it is important to support initiatives
aimed at increasing crop production, arguing that this will reduce the
food import bill.
Mr Jean Damascene Hakuzimana, the advocacy and
communication manager at Amir, said agro-lending was in line with the
core objective of the association; helping rural people get out of
poverty.
He noted that co-operatives hardly help farmers to
access inputs or even sell their produce through the societies. 66 per
cent of farmers acquire inputs from traders, while 32.6 per cent get it
from co-operatives. About 71 per cent farmers sell their produce to
traders and 28.7 market it through co-operatives.
According Innocent Musabyimana, the deputy
director in charge of agricultural extension at the Rwanda Agricultural
Board, connecting farmers with credit financial institutions is one of
the main objectives of the board.
“Our objective is to improve crop production
through application of inorganic and organic fertilisers and irrigation.
It’s therefore, important that we support agro-lending,” Musabyimana
said.
Placide Shema, an agro-lending consultant, said
many of the challenges in the agro-value chain could be solved with
better funding.
“It is, therefore, important that micro-finance
institutions assist rural farmers boost their production capacity
through agro-lending,” Shema said at a recent meeting of AMIR members in
Kigali.
He noted that extending financial services to
rural areas will enable farmers become bankable, which will ultimately
benefit financial institutions.
“It’s a win-win situation, help the rural farmers
get out of poverty through agro-lending and they will boost your
business,” he told MFIs.
He, however, advised them to target farmers who deal in fast-growing crops and those with medium to big farming projects.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
