Most farmers accessing funds informally- report

By -
Kampala- Six out of 10 small scale farmers depend on money lenders (loan sharks) and other informal sources of funding, a report presented by a group of civil society organizations claims.
The problem with such unregulated financing, according to Sophie Kyagulanyi, the programme manager of Forum for Women in Democracy- a gender-based civil society organisation, is that it exposes the farmers to unfavourable terms, almost all the time.

  
Caritas Uganda’s Francis Ndamira calls for partnership between government and the civil society to promote agriculture. Listening in is Ministry of Finance’s Maxwell Adea. Photo by S. Wandera  

Accessing finances
Presenting a paper on agricultural financing at a meeting yesterday in Kampala, Ms Kyagulanyi said while quoting figures generated by the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), that 61 per cent of small scale farmers, who make 80 per cent of the total farmers in the country access finances from informal sources to help them produce.
“And 29 per cent of the same farmers (at least three out of 10 small scale farmers) get their funding from semi informal sources while only 10 per cent ( one out of ten) access agricultural funding from the formal financial institutions,” she said.
And that, according to Ms Kyagulanyi, explains why agriculture, despite the government saying it is the backbone of the economy, is not contributing as much as it should in the development of the country. With formal financial institution interests rates hovering at over 20 per cents, small scale holder farmers tend to turn to loan sharks/money lenders who are prepared to bail them out although at a punitive cost.
Most of them money lenders interest’s rates is as high as 100 per cent but because of its informal nature of operations—less stringent, farmers continue to seek for their services as opposed to formal financial institutions.

It also emerged that beside the challenges surrounding access to agricultural financing, those who are able to access it are not given enough repayment period let alone exorbitant rates being imposed on them.
Ms Federica Nshemereirwe, the senior agricultural officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, emphasised the need for coordination.


Author: iladu@ug.nationmedia.com 
Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Most-farmers-accessing-funds-informally--report/-/688322/2099130/-/vumtc6/-/index.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When midwives turned to mobile phone light to save mothers

By -
A mother at Lapainat Health Centre III lies on the floor as she waits to be attended to. Midwives now use mobile phone light to help mothers deliver. In Summary Finding options. With most of the health facilities lacking adequate personnel and the required medical equipment, most affected people -- the peasants -- decided to take control of their development affairs. The experience she goes through is beyond her imagination. Just in her early 20s, Vistine Kemigisha is already dealing with situations that even an experienced midwife would not wish to face. “I remember a day when I assisted a woman to deliver in a facility that didn’t have any equipment. Not even light. Yet it was late in the night,” Kemigisha, a young midwife in Kabale District, told the Saturday Monitor. “This woman was brought to the health centre by a group of six young men, who had each carried her in turns on their shoulders.”In her attempt to help th...
Read more

TIMELY CALL TO CHAMPION SPACES, SOLIDARITY AND SOLUTIONS IN THE WOMEN DELIVER 2023 CONFERENCE

By -
Image
 As one of the largest multi-sectoral convening to advance gender equality, convening 6,000 advocates onsite, and over 200,000 advocates online from diverse fields, the Women Deliver 2023 Conference has been co-created by grassroots advocates, youth, civil society, governments, multilateral organizations, and the private sector, including from and representing communities facing systemic discrimination around the world.   Rwanda continues to make great effort in leading gender equality in the world. By 61.3%, it is the country in the world with first female majority in Parliament not forgetting that it has also promoted women’s health, made policies to advance equal pay and established laws criminalizing violence against women among others. This makes Kigali the perfect venue for Women Deliver 2023 because of its strong commitment to gender equality and girls and women’s health, according to Kathleen Sherwin, the outgoing CEO Women Deliver.   Women Deliver is a leading g...
Read more