Accra, Dec. 12, GNA - ProCredit, a Savings and Loans Company, is supporting the Ghanaian economy by giving Agricultural Loan (Agro-Loan) to farmers, which has been made flexible to help them develop their agricultural and fishery businesses.

About 450,000 dollars have been set aside to support the farmers in their agricultural and processing activities such as crop development, livestock breeding and fish farming or marine fishery. Both small and large-scale farmers are qualified for the loan and must meet requirements such as the proof of ownership of a business, experience for at least three production cycles and ownership of a voters ID, a passport or driver's license.

Ms. Edwige Takassi, Managing Director of ProCredit, said the support was necessitated from the lack of credit facilities for farmers and the decreasing economic margin for crops such as maize, millet, sorghum and cassava.

Speaking at the launch of the Agro-loan on Tuesday, she said even though the Agricultural Development Bank gave credit for agricultural businesses, it was responsible to 85 per cent of institutional credit to the agricultural sector.

She said ProCredit as a development-oriented institution was willing to promote the development of agricultural activities as part of its commitment to support the national economic development. "Additionally, ProCredit believes that by providing the right support to farmers, agricultural yields would increase substantially to expand the country's export industry."

Ms Eva Crass, an Agricultural Economist said due to poor monitoring and bad repayment behaviour of loan recipients, disbursed Agro-loans were perceived as "free money". She said this attitude was being corrected by employing the right tools for analysing Agro businesses and proactively meeting all actors in the industry to create a long-term relationship to assist in the growth of their businesses.

She said unlike other banks, ProCredit did not promote consumer loans, instead, it focused on responsible banking, banking by providing a savings culture and long-term partnership with customers. ProCredit has 23 financial institutions in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.