At least $320 million allocated to farmers
and agricultural and medium-scale enterprises in northern Ghana is sitting idle
because many of the intended beneficiaries are from districts without any
community or rural bank.
According to the Monitoring and Evaluation
Officer of the Rural and Agricultural Finance Programme (RAFIP), Mr Raymond
Mensah, as at 2011, a total of US$320 million credit for agriculture and medium
scale enterprises had not been utilised.
The unutilised funds, he noted, was probably
higher because the figure mentioned did not include funds from the Export
Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), Venture Capital Fund and other funding
sources.
Mr Mensah made this known Thursday at a
meeting organised by the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP) and the
Northern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to strategise how to establish
rural banks in various districts in the Northern Region.
Participants at the meeting included the Bank
of Ghana, ARB Apex Bank, Association of Rural and Community Banks, District
Chief Executives (DCEs), other local government staff and some opinion leaders.
Addressing the meeting, the National
Co-ordinator of the NRGP, Mr Roy Ayariga, said the NRGP was a $104 million
agricultural support project being co-funded by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the
Government of Ghana over an eight-year period, 2008 – 2015.
He said part of those funds was to be
extended to support low income farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper
West regions and parts of the Brong Ahafo region, but the funds were not
reaching the target group due to the absence of rural banks.
He said already the project was in its fifth
year and, therefore, it would be unfortunate if it should elapse without some
of its target farmers benefiting from it.
The co-ordinator noted that NRGP was taking a
lead role in facilitating the establishment of rural and community banks
because the programme sought to increase farmers’ access to credits, because
many of the big banks shied away from giving credits to farmers.
The Head of Research, Marketing and Corporate
Affairs of ARB Apex Bank, Mr Richard Mettle Addo, said it was not only farmers
who were losing out, but other people, including those involved in small scale
businesses.
He said huge sums of monies meant for the
implementation of pro-poor programmes and other development initiatives were
being channelled through rural banks and, therefore, people living in districts
without those banks were at a disadvantage.
The Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Mr San
Nasamu Asabigi, underscored the need for leaders in the various districts to
acquire information on how to start rural banks in the areas and work towards
establishing them.
He said agriculture was very important and
that the establishment of rural banks should be a matter of priority because it
would help leverage resources to poor farmers and that would increase
production and help reduce poverty.
In an interview, the Rural Financial Services
Specialist of the NRGP, Mr Emmanuel Antwi, said that the Upper East, Upper West
and Northern regions, combined, could boast of only 15 rural banks out of the
about 136 rural and community banks nationwide.
“So obviously, pro-poor packages that are
channelled through rural and community financial institutions to the target
population would not reach people in the north,” he said.
Mr Antwi said the NRGP was trying to
challenge district assemblies in the north to take a lead role in establishing
rural banks in their respective areas in the spirit of public-private
partnership.
“The assemblies can help sensitise their
people to the importance of rural banks and also help to mobilise the required
initial capital for starting a rural bank,” he stated.
Source: Daily Graphic
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