Nucafe lobbies for funds to ease farmers’ credit access
Kampala.
The National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (Nucafe) has asked the Santa Clara University Miller Centre for Social Entrepreneurship to link it to investors for affordable credit which will solve framers’ cash flow challenges and fund its expansion drive.
Nucafe executive director Joseph Nkandu said the organisation is faced with cash flow challenges, inhibiting it from making timely payments to its member farmers whenever they deliver coffee.
“Coffee goes through a long process before it reaches the consumer who pays for the final product. Before that, we don’t get any money to pay farmers yet many are financially constrained. If they are unable to pay their children’s fees or afford basic need they will get demoralised.
“But if we get funds to sort out farmers’ cash flow challenges, we will give them morale to produce more coffee and thus boost coffee exports,” Mr Nkandu said.
He was speaking to a delegation from the Miller Centre for Social Entrepreneurship based at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley California, led by the chairman Advisory Board, Jeff Miller.
He decried the high cost of domestic borrowing, saying it increases the operational costs, leaving farmers with very small profit margins.
Mr Nkandu said access to low interest rate loans of about 5 per cent, will enable the organisation create a big impact across the country. The average commercial bank interest rate in Uganda is about 23 per cent.
Mr Jeff Miller, on his part, said his team will help Nucafe make a good business plan to attract social-impact investors.
“We don’t lend money but we will help Nucafe make good business plans that make sense to investors to provide funds for investment and also show them how to run the organization more efficiently and effectively so that it makes sense to investors,” he said.
Nucafe was last year among the 14 social enterprises from across the world that qualified to take part in the Global Social Benefit Institute of Santa Clara University accelerator programme, in Silicon Valley in California.
