Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter
FIRST Capital Bank has pledged to play its part in supporting Government efforts towards expanding business opportunities with special interest in the agriculture value chain.
Speaking during a breakfast meeting hosted by the bank in Bulawayo last week, First Capital Bank managing director, Mr Ciaran McSharry, said they were keen to help the country to return to its historic status as the breadbasket of Africa through financing farmers.
“Our goal is to create an opportunity to share insights on how to drive our respective businesses forward in the face of the fluid Covid pandemic, global issues, and our own local macro-economic conditions,” he said.
“We support agriculture and finance farmers through loans.
We also do follow-ups to make sure that there is no misuse of funds, which will end up resulting in failure to pay back loans.
“The money we give as loans is not ours, it is our customers’ money and we make sure we protect that money through putting certain requirements, which helps us to have assurance that people can be able to pay back the loans.”
Mr McSharry said the meeting’s theme: “Thinking big in a challenging environment”, emphasised the need for adoption of best business practices, strategic partnerships and facilities that may exist to help industry forge ahead against any challenges.
Guest of honour at the event and a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce senior member, Mr Golden Muoni, said the Covid-19 pandemic has not only disrupted business but has also created new opportunities and assisted countries to develop internal capacities.
He said it is the role of banks to capacitate communities to attain adequate productive capacity.
“People should use opportunities like land reform to their benefit and banks should finance farmers so that the country will be able to be a breadbasket once more,” said Mr Muoni.
He urged the Government to work closely with the private sector to address challenges related to the exchange rate and support confidence in the use of the local currency.
“We cannot control the economy without our own currency and the problem with using United States dollar is that we can’t export as our goods will be very expensive,” he said.
“The problem is that people always speculate, which is the reason for the change of exchange rates on a daily basis.”
Although the adoption of the US-dollar dominated multi-currency monetary system has been credited for bringing about inflation stability in the past, experts have said this came with its own problems as it stifled growth.
Under this framework, the country could not utilise its monetary instruments to influence economic activity, and gradually lost competitiveness compared to major trading partners in the region and abroad.
– @SikhulekelaniM1
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