SIF earmarks over $3m credit facility

The Social Investment Fund (SIF) has earmarked US$3.12 million credit facility for micro/small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector.

The credit facility is to give farmers, farmer groups and other actors more access to financial services.

The facility is under the Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP), the latest project being implemented by SIF.  The fund will be disbursed by 47 partner finance institutions (PFIs) located in the project areas.

At least 4,000 farmers, farmer groups and other actors in the value-chain, of which 40 per cent of the beneficiaries are enterprises owned by women, would benefit from the credit facility.

“Specifically, farmers and farmer groups and other actors under the project will be provided with short-term input credit, capacity-building, equipment and agricultural infrastructure, among others,” the Executive Director of the SIF, Mr Joe Acheampong, told the Daily Graphic in Accra. 

Partner financial institutions

He said the fund had been operating with 34 PFIs and had recently accredited 13 new rural banks and micro-finance institutions bringing the PFIs to 47.

“The PFIs serve as vehicles for giving small and medium-term loans to farmers and dynamic entrepreneurs for investments in the agricultural value-chain under the IRDP,” he explained.

Mr Acheampong further explained that the credit facility was the agricultural production and marketing credit component of the project, which was to enhance access of farmers and farmer groups to financial services. 

The executive director said the credit facility was to help increase investments in the agricultural production value-chain. 

He noted that where target clientele did not have access to loans for capital equipment, SIF would liaise with the PFIs to design financial products that would enable such farmers to have access to agricultural equipment or infrastructure loans. 

Mr Acheampong added that the ARB Apex Bank Limited and the National Investment Bank (NIB) would serve as fund managers, who would lend out the revolving loanable funds to prequalify rural and community banks, financial NGOs and credit unions, among others. 

The IRDP project

The IRDP, which is being implemented in 21 districts with agricultural development potential, aims at benefiting small-scale farmers, farmer groups and other actors, who are engaged in the cultivation of maize, guinea corn, millet, sorghum, groundnuts and pepper, among other crops, in the agricultural value-chain.

Goal of IRDP

The goal of the project is to promote integrated rural development by increasing household incomes and employment through enhanced farming (food, fisheries and livestock), marketing and distribution in the agricultural production value chain. 

Mr Acheampong stressed that the IRDP sought to increase the outputs of micro, small and medium-scale agricultural producers through the provision of credit, technology and access to social services.

“It is also to provide farmers access to a reliable and ready market for their produce and to strengthen institutional capacities,” he explained.