Absa Bank Ghana says it has financial support for players in the agribusiness sector to revamp the local economy through agriculture.
It is thus urging them to take advantage of the opportunity in order to scale up their businesses.
Speaking on the on-air-series of the Citi Business Festival, Head of Agribusiness at Absa Bank Ghana, William Nettey, mentioned that the bank stands ready to provide financial and technical assistance to push the agricultural value chain.
“There is huge opportunity across the value chain. We have given a lot of support to the input side. We have a number of clients who do the buying and selling. Now, even younger people are beginning to see the need for bigger farms, and so we want to be deliberate and focus there. So there are a lot of potentials, and we need to really look at how we can support and at Absa, we are really ready to support”, William Nettey said.
He however stressed the need for such entrepreneurs to, among other things, adopt good book-keeping and financial practises.
This he says will enable the financial institution to offer the necessary assistance.
William Nettey cautioned that agribusinesses that fail to keep proper account of business transactions will lose out on such available support.
“Businesses whether they are young or growing must put their books in order. How are their financials looking? How is their management account? They should put all of these in place. Beyond that, they must have the cash flow, and that will give the bank the sense of what you need and how you are going to repay.”
“As they go along, they also have to build a fallback or what we call collateral because it is needed to balance any other facilities that they take. If they don’t run the accounts well, it puts a dent on their ability to get financial facilities.”
The Citi Business Festival is an extensive program of business events and on-air activities providing inspiration, business ideas, and information to persons who are starting, building, or growing their businesses.
The on-air series airs on the Citi Breakfast Show on 97.3 Citi FM every weekday.
For the 2022 edition, the themes outlined during the period were as follows:
Week 1: Re-imagining the Digital Economy
Week 2: Resetting your SME after COVID-19
Week 3: The Ghana Opportunity
Week 4: Consumer Markets
Week 5: Agribusiness
ABSA Bank is the main sponsor of the Citi Business Festival 2022 and supported by MTN Momo and MTN Business, IT Consortium and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and GIRSAL.
