TANZANIA Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) and PASS Trust have agreed to partner and stimulate the access and affordability of agricultural loans among youth and women in Tanzania.
Under the strategic partnership, the two institutions would stand a better chance of transforming the agriculture and contribute significantly to the growth and development of the national economy.
"Our institutions are at the heart of making transformation of the agricultural sector. To achieve this goal there is a need to directly link and engage youth for sustainability of our interventions is vital for sustainable socio-economic development." TADB Managing Director Frank Nyabundege said in his meeting with PASS Managing Director Johane Kaduma over the weekend.
The duo stressed the need of the two institutions to work closely in partnership to increase the accessibility and affordability of agricultural loans particularly for youth and women engaged in agriculture.
According to International Labor Organization, Tanzania youth unemployment rate among 15 and 34 years old- was 13.4 per cent, females stand at 14.3 per cent and amongst males were 12.3 percent.
"In the verge to create employment opportunities and support the country's vision in creating 8,000,000 jobs PASS Trust have confidence that agriculture is the sector that can contribute this.
We have been able to develop the Agribusiness Innovative Centre (AIC) to impact youth with agribusiness skills." Said Mr. Kaduma.
The discussions of two heads of institutions centered and also enlightened the future collaborations of the two institutions in enhancing availability of capital for youth through the AIC.
"To enhance more youth involvement in the agri-sector we are bond to not only provide them with skills but ensuring capital availability. And this is a role that TADB is here to enhance." Mr Nyabundege said. On the other hand the two institutions discussed on how they could create favorable environment for more women to venture into agri-business.
"Currently we are seeing fewer women accessing agricultural loans due to collateral issues as most women lack land ownership whereby men make ¾ of land ownership.
With this partnership between TADB and PASS Trust, we can agree on how through our guarantee schemes more women can access financing as they make over 60% of the labor force in the agri-sector," Kaduma stressed.
They also agreed to increase their efforts in de-risking the agricultural sector for increased accessibility, inclusiveness and affordability of loans in the country.
Mr Nyabundege and Kaduma had also commended the already established strategic partnership that has by far influenced the decrease in interest rates in agri-loans and called on Tanzanians to fully exploit the opportunity.
TADB remains hopeful because during the last meeting of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) held at the Dar es Salaam state house on June 26, this year, the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) asked the government to increase funding to the TADB and the Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB), as a way of boosting big investment projects.
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