BAT joins Posta Bank to improve tobacco outgrowers livelihoods
Farmers receive payments from a Posta mobile bank booth. PHOTO BY FRANKFURT KUHEISA
What you need to know:
The initiative will help farmers to access banking services, which they can use to improve their livelihoods.
Kanungu
British American Tobacco, has through Posta Bank, created a payment system that will be used to clear tobacco outgrowers in Kanungu District.
The new system is an upgrade of the old one where farmers would be cleared at BAT’s purchasing points.
While launching the programme early this week, Mr Francis Mwesigwa, the Kanungu BAT area manager, said the initiative seeks to ease payments as well inculcating a culture of saving among farmers.
The programme, according to Mr Mwesigwa, also seeks to create a secure environment for both the company and the farmers in the area of financial handling.
Farmers that Saturday Monitor spoke to expressed optimism about the initiative. They said it would provide access to banking services that would as well help them in access credit for business improvement.
Mr Gideon Baruta, a tobacco farmer from Nyamirama sub-county in Kanungu, said “Since BAT has been our partner for all this time, I have confidence that the company is doing something that will better our livelihoods.”
Mr Jjuko Kasita, the Deputy District Resident Commissioner, said companies must work towards bettering the lives of communities around which they work. He said many companies just milk all they can from areas they work around with little effort to better peoples’ livelihoods.
