Banks do not fear Farmers - HOFOKAM and Centenary awarded by farmers at APF Agri-Finance Fair in Fort Portal

[Roel Snelder]

 

Quotes from the fair:

• Farmer: "I always thought banks were not for small farmers; now I have changed my mind and am more confident"
• The minister: “agriculture is largely a profitable sector holding high potential”.
• Bank of Africa: “banks do not fear financing agriculture”

 

Hands up

Posing the question of who actually did business during the fair to the audience resulted in a hall full of hands up. Many farmers did make a choice for a certain provider and had made appointments for follow up talks with the provider.

 

After the fair farmers and farmer groups confirmed their increased knowledge of the market offer regarding financial services and stated at the same time that they felt empowered and more confident in applying for services including those of commercial banks.

 

Good uptake of farmers and financials

The Agri-Finance Fair opened by the Minister of Finance and Investment in Fort Portal attracted 17 different Financial Service providers ranging from local SACCOs to the major commercial banks who exhibited their products. Approximately 350 plus farmers, many representing farmer groups, made use of the event in familiarizing themselves about the financial products on offer while engaging actively with exhibiting financial service providers. Sector representatives of Bank of Uganda, NAADS, district agricultural representatives and APF coordinating members (KRC, CABCS, SNV, BD, GIZ, TRIAS, aBi Trust, Forma) took the opportunity to discuss issues affecting acces to finance for farmers,

 

Fair acts as market survey

The financial institutes, particularly the commercial banks, stressed the importance of the event in terms of getting to know their (potential) clientele better and described the relevance of the event as a kind market survey. They confirmed that their knowledge about accessibility and appropriateness of their current product range for the smallholder agricultural sector was unknown. With the gained insights they would re-assess current conditions in an effort to customize product conditions and increase accessibility.

 

In this sense the Finance Fair responded to the core constraints in access to finance for smallholder farmers as mentioned before – the limited knowledge of, and cultural barrier farmer feel in dealing with the formal financial system and - the bias of the formal banks in engaging with smallholder agriculture.

 

 

Award winners

The fair included a competition for the financial service provider, voted most popular with farmers. In the category farmer groups Centenary Bank won the award for their farmer friendly product package while in the category individual farmers HOFOKAM captured the award.

 

Financial literacy

The event also brought to the fore that farmers still have a lot to learn about how banks work. Discussions during the learning sessions and from several presentations revealed that work is to be done for farmers to understand banking business, requirements and the basics about what it means to farm as a business.

 

Financial institutes including banks, intermediary organisations and farmer(-groups) confirmed the importance of continuing the established linkages which includes the joint organisation of future Finance Fairs.

 

A full account of the event will be published on the platform including a shorty documentary and video-interviews with banks, farmer and representatives of government and bank of Uganda.

 

Courtesy of Rik Delnoye - Royal Tropical Instutute