By Our Reporter
Richard Byarugaba, the executive director finance, payment systems, accounts and head of the agricultural credit facility, at Bank of Uganda has advised youths to join commercial agriculture for political peace and stability in the country.
“We need food security to beat malnutrition diseases and stabilize the country’s security because hungry citizens are difficult to deal with,” he said during the first national empowerment & development in commercial agriculture conference (NEDCA22) on Thursday at Uganda Information and Communication Technology Institute in Nakawa.
“We are already too many so we need to make sure we have enough to eat and then think about selling to the market and other countries,” he said
He explained that in 2009, the government, in a bid to address some of the gaps in commercial agriculture, government established the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) and invested Shs 21 and also established partnership partnership with commercial banks and since the ACF formation, about Shs 700b has been used by over 500 farmers. The loans come with less collateral with 12% interest for agriculturists among others.
The ACF was purposely to commercialize and mechanize agriculture through the provision of affordable credit to small, medium and large enterprises engaged in agriculture and agro-processing.
The government also established the Block Allocation arrangement where farmers are allowed to access ACF to a tune of UGX 20 million without collateral required in the conventional banking.
“Government established the Small Business Recovery Fund (SBRF) in November 2021 to enhance the capability of small businesses to recover and resume operations at the levels they were before the measures that were instituted to control the spread of COVID-19 across the country.
Speaking at the event, Laban Joshua Musinguzi, the president of the youth coalition for sustainable development goals (SDGs) and CEO Agrofresh Uganda said the conference is to prepare youths interested in Urban and commercial agriculture to access loans availed by the commercial banks.
“If these youths can come in and have a block or group through which they can go to the back and the bank doesn’t ask for collateral but at least lend them money. Partnerships makes it easier to acquire loans from commercials banks because for someone to lend you money, you must have a track record of trust,” he said
