Banks urged to disburse SAFF funds

By SELINA NAMANWE

THE Sustainable Agricultural Financing Facility (SAFF) coordinator, Obby Mainza has urged banks to disburse approved funds to farmers under the scheme.

Dr Mainza said the banks should not delay to disburse the funds because doing so will disadvantage farmers to carry out agricultural activities.

He said Government is eager to see to it that all farmers under the facility are empowered for them to smoothly undertake farming activities.

In an interview with Millennium TV, Dr Mainza said the government has allocated enough funds to support farmers under the scheme and the banks need to ensure that all eligible farmers get the funds on time.

He said farmers need to practice mechanisation farming to increase  production output and this can only be done when the funds are made available to farmers.

He however said the government will increase funding under this scheme from K275 million to a larger amount when it is pleased with the way the banks will implement the first phase.

Dr. Mainza said Government want to see to it that the scheme is successful because this is critical to guarantee food security for the country.

He said the country has faced food insecurity because of the drought but now that this year’s farming season is promising necessary resources need to be provided to farmers for them to increase production.