Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo has disclosed that over K117 million loans have so far been approved from 20,250 applicants that have registered under the Strategic Agriculture Finance Facility-SAFF-.
During an engagement on accelerating agriculture development with his Finance counterpart Situmbeko Musokotwane, Mr Mtolo says out of the total amount of loans approved, over K110 million or 95%, have successfully been disbursed to 4,528 beneficiaries, countrywide.
Meanwhile, Dr Musokotwane says the strategic agriculture finance facility is a clincher in the empowerment of small-scale entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector who are not beneficiaries under the Farmer Input Support Programme-FISP-.
SAFF is an initiative of the Zambian government designed to offer specialized financing solutions to small and medium-scale farmers, focusing primarily on those not covered by FISP but have 1 to 5 hectares of farmland.
Partnering with five banks among them Zanaco, NATSAVE, Indo-Zambia, Atlas-mara and ABSA Zambia, and backed by the Zambia Credit Guarantee Scheme, SAFF is offered at an interest rate of 12% and repayable at the end of the farming season.
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