The state-owned Tanzania Agriculture Development Bank (TADB) has guaranteed financing of Sh173.49 billion to agriculture in five years through its smallholder guarantee scheme. The bank revealed that some 13,239 smallholder farmers benefited from the initiative from 2018 to the end of December 2022.
The state-owned bank provides up to a 50 percent guarantee to partner banks that provide agriculture loans, through the arrangement known as Smallholder Farmers Credit Guarantee Scheme (SCGS).
This comes at a time when the bank is performing well and reporting profits, as overall, the bank also had a good year, recording a one percent increase in its cumulative profit to TSh11 billion by the end of 2022 from TSh10.9 billion in 2021.
The scheme is funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) through Marketing Infrastructure, Value Addition, and Rural Finance Support Programme (MIVARF) which is implemented under the Prime Minister’s Office. This scheme supports the government’s pledge to ensure small-scale farmers and agro-SMEs access affordable financial support and boost agriculture financing.
Through other initiatives, the bank has also endorsed 232 agriculture projects, facilitating the implementation of 42 agriculture processing industries.