Nedbank secures US$25m credit for exporters, farmers

Lovemore Kadzura in MUTARE

Major commercial bank Nedbank Zimbabwe has accessed a US$25 million line of credit for exporting firms and horticultural producers.

Speaking on the sidelines of the highly successful two-day horticulture trade and finance conference held here, the bank’s head of treasury, marketing and corporate affairs, Ms Latifa Kassim, said the funding was facilitated by their major shareholder, Nedbank South Africa.

It is expected to have a major impact on farmers who have capacity to export but are short of finance.

The conference was sponsored by Nedbank in partnership with the Horticultural Development Council and Zimpapers.

Nedbank has been playing a key role in financing exporting firms, a development that has contributed to boosting the country’s export earnings, while improving the performance of the agricultural sector.

The facility will have favourable terms and conditions for different classes of potential beneficiaries to access the funds.

“We are pleased to be the platinum sponsor of this horticulture trade and finance held in Mutare,” said Ms Kassim.

“Our main reason for participating this year is because there is a lot of value in capacity building in this sector.

“There is also a lot of value in understanding the needs of these farmers because as a bank, our main intention is to support economic growth holistically.”

Nedbank came up with the sponsorship because it believes it has sufficient expertise in trade finance, which can also benefit farmers in the region in general and the economy in particular.

“As discussed at the conference, we were able to glean into the major challenges that the farmers have been facing around markets, access to finance, access to basic services which enabled them to produce more and do their business better.

“As a bank, one of the key things that came up was our ability to provide appropriate finance, which will have the correct tenures and interest rates to support these farmers. We have a US$25 million line of credit, which we are getting through our major shareholder, Nedbank South Africa, and it’s to support export products,” she said.

Horticulture is one of the major sectors that export, and the line of credit is expected to be accessed by businesses in the agriculture sector.

Ms Kassim encouraged farmers to take up the funds, which will have a tenure ranging from one to three years and a lot of terms that are negotiable depending on the nature of the borrowing business.

Chief director in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, Mr Leonard Munamati, hailed Zimpapers and Nedbank for organising the conference.

The conference brought together farmers, finance houses, experts and Government departments to tackle industry challenges and share notes on how to grow the sector back to its glory days.

“Our target is to have a US$1 billion horticulture economy by 2030 up from the current US$120 million.

“Currently the agricultural sector contributes 17 percent to Gross Domestic Product and accounts for 40 percent export earnings,” he said.