Farmers to benefit from loans at northern Uganda Farm Clinic

For the umpteenth time, Bank of Uganda will be participating in the Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic in Lira District as they seek to teach farmers how to ease their financial challenges through ACF.
“We shall be sharing with the farmers in the region on the availability of affordable credit under the ACF that is being administered by the Central Bank and what are qualifies for financing under the ACF,” Muliisa revealed.

“This is a risk sharing facility between the government of Uganda and the financial institutions regulated by Bank of Uganda (commercial banks, Micro Deposit taking Institutions and Credit Institutions) as well as Uganda Development Bank,” she added.
All these institutions, according to Muliisa, are collectively referred to as participating financial institutions (PFIs) under the ACF and they are BoU partners.

“We anticipate that they will all be in Lira on October 13 to engage with the farmers on how these funds can be accessed,” she said.
Accessing the cash
Muliisa expounds that the funds under the ACF are accessed through the PFIs.
“The PFIs are responsible for appraising the projects to assess existence of these projects or genuineness, eligibility and whether these projects are viable since these loans are meant to be paid back so that other farmers can benefit,” says Muliisa adding, “The farmer will therefore approach any bank of their choice with a request to access financing under the ACF.” According to Muliisa, the request should be accompanied by a good business case detailing the project or farming activity to be financed. “The bank will advise on other information they require such as collateral requirements and bank statements,” she said.
Praise for clinics
Bank of Uganda has had a number of synergies with various partners in an effort to sensitise the farmers across the country and the general public about the ACF and Seeds of Gold Farm Clinics are one of those. “The Farm Clinics are important because they provide the necessary trainings for the farmers on best agricultural practices which skills are very relevant to scale up agriculture and make these farmers bankable. The clinics also offer a platform, linking farmers to available financial products in the market and so the farm clinics offer a good opportunity for BoU to be able to meet with the various farmers and sensitize them about the ACF and the objective of government establishing the scheme,” Muliisa stressed.
Free information
“We plan to have presentations on the scheme and the procedure of accessing the scheme as well as through the radio talk shows and other promotional materials like flyers will be available,” Muliisa explains.
There will also be opportunities of one-on-one engagement with the farmers who will wish to have or require additional clarifications. Although it will be the first Farm Clinic in the north, Muliisa says a number of farmers have benefitted from their initiative.

About the project
The scheme was launched in 2009. However actual disbursements began in March 2010.
BoU have to date disbursed loans amounting to Shs278.2 billion of which government contribution accounts for Shs139.9 billion.
As earlier mentioned these loans are to be paid back after a given period and so far Shs80.8 billion has been paid back and reinvested for lending to other eligible farmers.

The project
The scheme was launched in 2009.
However actual disbursements began in 2010.
BoU have to date disbursed loans amounting to Shs139.8billion.