Agribank’s new board to focus on financial sustainability
The newly appointed board chairperson of the Agricultural Bank of Namibia, Josephat Mwatotele, announced that financial sustainability, service delivery and socio-economic transformation will be the key focus areas during their tenure as Board of Directors of the bank.Mwatotele made the announcement during the inauguration of the revamped Agribank Rundu offices on Wednesday, where he said that “for Agribank to continue delivering on its agriculture development mandate and benefit as many Namibians as possible, now and for years to come, it calls for financial sustainability”.
Furthermore, Mwatotele emphasised that financial sustainability requires Agribank to stretch its limited resources in new and innovative ways (outside the traditional areas of business); being prudent in the use of available resources in a responsible and transparent manner including cost management; and growing its loan book and finding new ways to grow its capital base.
In addition, the chairperson stated that financial sustainability also means that “clients need to honour their obligations and ensure timely loan repayments to the bank, as this is the only way we can make a wider and inclusive impact on agriculture and contribute to the development of our country”.
He said that from a customer service perspective, the focus will be on service delivery. “To this end, the bank is in the process of reviewing existing policies and streamlining internal processes that will make it much more agile and responsive to customer needs. Thus, creating a functional service centre, such as the revamped Rundu office, is a good first step as provides point of presence for facilitating such customer engagements,” Mwatotele said.
He said that Agribank is a national development finance institution expected to play a catalyst in addressing key national development issues such as food security, poverty reduction and employment creation within the agricultural space. “Thus, the focus on socio-economic transformation is on creating targeted interventions to ensure that the Bank achieve inclusive developmental outcomes.”
With Government’s emphasis now on value addition and growth-at-home, the bank has realigned its strategy accordingly to ensure that it also plays a meaningful role in this strategic objective, by offering to finance of value-addition activities in the agricultural space.
Agribank’s loans can be utilized for purchasing farmland, production inputs, livestock, farming infrastructure, vehicles and equipment, biomass management, aquaculture, poultry, piggery, post-settlement support, as well as value addition through agro-processing.
The bank also provides training and mentorship services to farmers through the Agri-Advisory Services Division.