AGRICULTURAL Development Bank (ADB) has granted a loan facility of GH¢50 million to the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO) for its food storage activities.
The loan is to enable NAFCO to purchase grains specifically maize, rice and cowpea from farmers mainly under government’s flagship programme, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)’, to be supplied to government senior high schools.
At a brief presentation ceremony held at the ADB headquarters in Accra, Managing Director of ADB, Dr. John Kofi Mensah, said the bank recognizes its “strategic role” in financing to accelerate the growth of the agricultural and allied sectors.
He disclosed that, in 2018, the bank provided GH¢20 million to NAFCO to purchase grains under the PFJ programme.
The increased amount this year, he said, is underpinned by the fact that the cultivated area under the PFJ programme has increased, and again, because the third stream of students under the Free SHS programme will be going to school in September with the attendant increase in food requirement.
“In addition to supporting NAFCO to undertake purchase of grains, the bank will also continue to provide support to aggregators licensed by NAFCO to purchase grains and other foodstuff for supply to secondary schools,” he added.
Dr. Mensah also said the bank was concerned about post harvest losses and said they would support NAFCO to provide a reliable marketing outlet for farmers.
Receiving the donation, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAFCO, Alhaji Hanan Abdul-Wahab, commended the bank highly for the support. He said with the money, NAFCO would be able to purchase grains from farmers for “onward supply” to selected state institutions, especially public boarding schools under the Free SHS programme.
Representing the Ministry of Agriculture, Asante Krobea, Technical Advisor to the sector minister Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said the FPJ initiative is yielding positive results, and gestures like these would help strengthen agricultural development in the country.
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