Publish Date : 22-Jun-2017
The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has decided to provide a financing facility worth US$100 million to support the soft commodity value chain operations of Export Trading Group (ETG) in the region.
With this, it is expected that Zambia, among other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, will reap the benefits of this facility.
The newly approved soft commodity finance facility (SCFF), a core trade finance instrument utilized by the regional lender, features an innovative design to facilitate delivery of pre- as well as post-shipment funds across different phases of commodity value chain operations of ETG in the 17 nations that are likely to gain from the scheme.
The investment schemes of ETG will be comprised of fertilizer projects in Kenya and Zambia, plus the rice, cashew, maize, sesame, cotton processing plants and biscuit factories in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Togo, Ethiopia, Benin, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Uganda. The multi-commodity warehouses will be opened in the countries of Burkina Faso, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Niger, Benin, Nigeria, Zambia and Ethiopia in addition to Silos in Zimbabwe.
The facility extended by the regional lender, as per a statement, will support the local farmers and the suppliers of soft commodity in the targeted countries increase their income and produce superior crops for the export markets.
The statement added, The facility will be used to finance the buying of identified agricultural commodities from over 600,000 farmers. Upon acquisition of the soft commodities, the soft commodity finance facility will provide working capital to ETG.
Consequently, enabling the company engage in value addition and processing of the soft commodities such as cashew nuts prior to exports, and provide funding to procure farm inputs mainly fertiliser components for blending, to be supplied to farmers so as to ensure consistency and quality of the commodities being supplied to ETG.
ETG, according to the statement, makes a major contribution to promote agribusiness in those nations, in which maximum employment is generated by the agriculture sector.
Go to previous page
