The management of Afram Community Bank (ACB) has reiterated its commitment to give credit to farmers with warehouse receipts from certified warehouses. This financial assistance will empower smallholder farmers to buy more agricultural inputs, plough more acreage and produce more grains thereby improving the country’s food security as well as financial wellbeing of the farmers.
The Head of Credit and Projects of ACB, Kwao Mensah-Jones, made the pledge at a training workshop organized for agricultural extension officers at Afram Plains by the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) Project of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group.
According to Mensah-Jones, the bank is particularly excited about the project because the WRS will help eliminate certain risks associated with advancing credit facilities to farmers. He explained that the measures put in place by the Ghana Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) have motivated the bank to give loans up to 80% of the receipt value to farmers. “The warehouse receipt system has come to solve our problem. Anyone that has a receipt from the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) warehouse will be granted a loan, we are ready to give up to 80% of the receipt value and we are really excited about this and as a bank we are ready”.
The Ghana Warehouse Receipt System Project is being implemented in nine regions of the country with financial support from the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The IFC WRS project is a technical assistance and advisory services project aimed at setting up a well-functioning regulated Warehouse Receipt System that is expected to facilitate an increased access to credit to farmers and the supply chain, linkage to structured markets and reduction in post-harvest storage loses.
This intervention focuses on supporting a well-functioning WRS as a necessary pre-condition for a successful implementation of the GCX. The project addresses WRS on a policy and regulatory level, system level, including technical advisory, training, capacity building and awareness raising for various stakeholders in the public and private sector.
IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. IFC also works with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In fiscal year 2018, IFC delivered more than US$23 billion in long-term financing for developing countries.