Innovative financing fundamental to successful agricultural development

Accra, December 3. 2014. The First Secretary of the Netherlands Embassy, Mr. Thierry Van Helden, says innovative financing is fundamental to successful agricultural development. He also indicated that there is much funding available, both commercial and non-commercial to support the vegetable sector. Having a viable and realistic business plan is the key to accessing this finance, he said this at the 4th GhanaVeg Business Platform Meeting held at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Theme

Speaking on the theme “Innovative Financing and Business Opportunities for the Commercial Vegetable Sector”, Mr. Van Helden said’ ’the vegetable sector is an important sector to invest into both for Ghana and the Netherlands as Ghana has a huge potential of delivering to both the domestic and international markets.’’

Key Players

The Minister of Food and Agriculture Hon. Fifi Fiavi Kwetey was present as well as representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The Business Platform also saw a Trade Delegation from the Netherlands taking part, including fertilizer and seed companies as well as importers of fresh produce. The Business Platform was designed to bring together key players of the commercial vegetable sector to tackle some of the financial challenges that the sector faces and find ways to increase productivity as well as the safety, quality and logistics of the produce. These key players in the vegetable sector rang from vegetable exporters to producers, and from input suppliers to domestic retailers.

Presentations

As part of activities for the day, presentations were given by financial institutions such as the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), ARB Apex Bank, EDAIF, AgDevCo and 2SCALE to inform stakeholders about  loans and co-financing products they can offer. The sessions ended with a match making and discussion between the companies on the accessibility  and requirements of these funds.