Barclays Bank to support 2million smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana 16

Two million smallholder farmers in the Northern under an out grower initiative will be supported with a loan facility aimed at enhancing produce. The initiative is being facilitated under the five year initiative of the USAID- Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID- FinGap), in collaboration with barclays bank Ghana. About 42% of the country's employed population is in the agriculture sector, with about 58% of the number being in the informal sector. The Agriculture sector contributes about 22% to total productivity of the economy. Only about 4% of financial sector lending goes to the Agric sector. The Agric sector is mainly rain fed in the country, since a bad weather would mean poor harvest, which often rendered the loans bad. This rendered the sector very risky to credit. Under the third year initiative of the USAID- Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID- FinGap), in soya, rice and maize supply chains in northern ghana, have facilitated financial opportunities to smallholder farmers through its Business Advisory Services to improve productivity. Interacting with stakeholders in the Agric sector at the 2016 Northern Ghana Pre-season and Networking forum in Tamale, the Head of Agribusiness of Barclays Bank revealed that the bank hopes to scale up it support to the smallholder farmers from 650 to 2million under the USAID initiative. SOT 1: Andrew Ahiaku, Head of Agribusiness, Barclays Bank of Ghana He advised farmers to engaged consultant to better structure their business proposals to attract loans. The Deputy chief of Party and manager of agribusiness Opportunity Development Unit of FinGAP, Dr. Victor Antwi said there is he need for farmers in the region to take farming us a business. From Tamale, Noah Nash for Viasat 1 News