World Bank, Centenary Bank Uganda sign agric deal

Wednesday July 13, 2011


The World Bank, through the Agricultural Finance Support Facility, has earmarked $2.1m (about sh5b) to build Centenary Bank capacity to lend to agriculture.

The funding agreement announced yesterday will see the World Bank contribute $1m (about sh2.4b) and Centenary Bank $1.1m (sh2.6bn) to train bankers and farmers in the specifics of agricultural lending.

“Most banks are risk averse. However, the objective of this grant is to develop the capacity in organisations like Centenary Bank to develop them as a business and to enable them deal with agricultural loan-clients’ a little differently from the usual business loan clients,” Kapil Kapoor, the acting World Bank country director, said at the launch in Kampala.

Fabian Kasi, the Centenary Bank managing director, said the facility would see bank’s lending to the agricultural sector increase to $34m (about sh81.6b) in the next three years.

By Samuel Sanya : The New Vision Newspaper