By: Bright Agamah
Small holder farmers within the catchment area of the Kintampo Rural Bank in the Bono Region, are to benefit from more loans under the Warehouse Receipt System, WRS, platform to increase their agricultural activities.
Officials of the bank including the Chief Executive Officer, Martin Mensah, said the Ghana WRS project being implemented by the IFC World Bank Group presents real opportunities to increase credit facilities to smallholder farmers to enhance production.
Mr. Mensah said the rural bank’s-WRS partnership provides a solid foundation for a better future for the farmers.
He acknowledged that most farmers lack collateral, but was happy that, the less risky arrangement under the WRS, will encourage the bank to increase its portfolio to support both commercial and smallholder farmers.
He said to this in an interview, at the end of a WRS training session organized by the IFC project team in Kintampo.
The Credit Officer in charge of the Kintampo Branch, Samuel Owusu, also observed that the project initiative is helping to eliminate the major barriers to lending to agricultural businesses.
With financial support from the Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the IFC Ghana WRS project is focusing on the grains value chain, and its being implemented in nine regions.
It is a technical assistance and advisory services project aimed at setting up a well-functioning and regulated WRS that is expected to facilitate an increased access to credit to farmers and the supply chain, access to structured markets and professional warehousing to reduce post-harvest storage loses.
The intervention is supporting a well-functioning WRS for the successful operations of the Ghana Commodity Exchange.