Accra, Aug. 5, GNA - Procredit Savings and Loans Company Limted, the only non-bank financial institution in Ghana, which supports the agricultural sector, has announced plans to expand its agribusiness loan portfolio to benefit the local agro-processing sector. Ms Edwige Takassi, Managing Director of Procredit, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that currently the agribusiness loan portfolio of the company stood at about 1.5 million Ghana cedis, constituting about eight per cent of its entire loan portfolio.

"Loans to the agric sector constitute the largest single loan portfolio of Procredit and we intend to increase it further to ensure that we become the leading private financial institution in the country that supports agriculture and agro-business," she said. Ms Tikassi made the promise after the launch of Procredit's Automated Teller Machine (ATM) service for current account holders in all its 14 branches in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Sunyani. The launch of the ATM is a novelty in the non-bank financial sector as Procredit is the first in the sector to offer such a service. Ms Tikassi said in line with the move to increase the agriculture loan portfolio, Procredit had already dispatched more agri-loan officers to the districts and also strengthened its partnership with key banks in the rural areas to facilitate the dispatch of the loans. Mr Raymond Kwakye Bismarck, Deputy General Manager of Procredit, said the ATM was user friendly for French speaking customers and E-zwich compliant.

"Our core business is to provide our target groups with access to banking services from the formal financial sector." He said the support for the agricultural sector for instance was in line with Procredit's business philosophy, which combined a development orientation with a commercial approach. Mr Bismarck said by supporting the agricultural sector, Procredit was helping to develop a crucial aspect of the Ghanaian economy that employed more than 50 per cent of the Ghanaian population and represented about 40 per cent of GDP. He said currently Procredit had 140,000 clients, comprising mainly of very small, small and medium-size enterprises in the country.