The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) is restructuring its operations to enable it to refocus on agricultural financing, the Managing Director of the bank, Dr John Kofi Mensah, has said.
He said the bank had expanded its Agriculture Department into an Agricultural Business Division, headed by a general manager, and also decentralised the division with dedicated agricultural desk officers at selected branches nationwide.
“The Agribusiness Division has been departmentalised into Agricultural Value Chain and Agricultural Services Department, which captures all the sectors in agriculture.
The department is available to facilitate loans and offer advisory services to customers in the crops, livestock, poultry, marine, cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruits and other export commodities,” Dr Mensah explained.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at a ceremony in Accra last Wednesday at which a cheque for GH¢480,000 was presented to the 2018 National Best Farmer, Mr James Obeng Boateng, as his prize money, Dr Mensah said the bank had also elevated the Loans Monitoring and Recovery Department to a division, also headed by a general manager, to strengthen the monitoring of loans.
Refocusing
The ADB boss said until the end of 2017, the bank’s focus on agriculture was minimal, but since then “ the ADB has repositioned itself to be more responsive to supporting agriculture in the country”.
He explained that from an initial loan portfolio of 20 per cent for the agricultural sector, the bank could now boast a 50 per cent loan portfolio for the sector.
“So what we have to do is expand the department, and that is why we have changed from a department to a division. So the direction the bank is going means that we are refocusing on agriculture, as our core mandate tells us,” he explained.
Sponsorship of Farmers Day
Dr Mensah announced that so far the bank had spent $1.8 million as the headline sponsor of the National Farmers Day celebrations over the last 15 years.The amount, he explained, was invested in building 15 two-bedroom houses in various locations in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.He said that amount excluded the sponsorship of the National Farmers Forum and welcome cocktail.Until 2018, the National Best Farmer was given the option to decide the region where a house should be built for him/her, but the formula changed last year when it was decided that the winner should determine what the prize money should be used for. Business proposal In view of that, Mr […]
