Ghanaian Farmers and Fishermen have hailed the decision of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) to list on the stock exchange
to raise the needed funds to enable it to effectively support the agricultural sector of the economy.
[contextly_sidebar id=”7zzdfLJ8R38GRyWz4OYEo77AuH2yJDWt”]In a stakeholder consultation with the bank in Accra on Monday, the farmers and fishermen nudged the state-owned financial firm to go ahead with its intended Initial Public Offer (IPO) that is geared towards raising over GHC300million to fund growth and revamp the operations of the bank.
“We think this bank needs to be strengthened. We have come to a consensus that we have to support the bank to be able to achieve its aim,” said Philip Abayori, President of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG).
“We hope that management would do their best to ensure that all the difficulties or bottlenecks and all that needed to be done are done to make sure this IPO process goes through smoothly,” he added.
Farmers and Fishermen have in the past expressed concern about their inability to access the needed funding from the bank to boost their businesses, but the bank explained to them that even though it has always supported agriculture and agribusiness, with at least 32 percent of the bank’s loan portfolio being held by the sector, the challenge was raising enough money to meet their expectations.
Managing Director of the bank Stephen Kpordzih, who with other top management staff engaged the farmers and fishermen on the bank’s readiness to float shares on the stock market, said with the current ownership structure as state-owned, the bank is unable to access medium and long-term funds that exist elsewhere from financial Institutions like the IFC, CDC among others.
Mr Kpordzih told the farmers and fishermen that going forward, the bank will commit resources to agriculture, cautioning those in the sector to see agriculture as a serious business rather than the usual subsistence farming.
“We need to find a way by getting people to understand that with proper funding made available, we can finance agriculture and make it profitable.”
The MD urged the farmers and fishermen to buy into the intended IPO so as to give them the necessary leverage in the workings of the bank.
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By: Christopher Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana