NDB pledges to equip farmers with financial literacy
Correspondent | Tuesday February 20, 2024 06:00
Last week ,during a financial wellness webinar, officials of the bank stressed the importance of right financial practice as a pre-requisite for farmers to benefit from Temo Letlotlo, which is a new arable farming programme that replaced ISPAAD. NDB CEO, Ozone Madisa, stated that as a developmental bank, they will play a more progressive role in the next financial year (2024-25).
She said in this matrix, they will inspire farmers to understand the financial part of farming, which is pivotal to their success on the farm and overall aim of feeding the nation. “There is only one thing that can bring down the nation’s dependency on other nations for food and energy.
Making agriculture the backbone of an economy is the way to go and here we are recognising the pivotal role of agriculture in our nation’s prosperity,” Madisa said. She told the webinar that NDB it is not just a bank, but an ally to the farmers and a resource that could be used to reach the pinnacle success of farming, which is the target of the country too.
“Our support extends to more financial transactions; we provide access to funding, financial education and insurance products like we are doing today. Also align with you with the nation’s goal,” Madisa added. The CEO noted that for farmers to delve into the commercial part of farming, it is not just about planting seeds and wait for the harvest. “Success in agriculture runs deep; it is about astute businesses management, meticulous record keeping and embracing innovation hence the hosting of this webinar for knowledge.”
Temo Letlotlo comes after a long list of policy interventions all of which have cost the treasury billions of pula over the years and failed to lift both agriculture production and food security. Between 2008 and 2023, government pumped billions of pula into ISPAAD, a figure that in the latter years of the programme averaged P600 million per season. Audits into ISPAAD, however, showed not only widespread illicit conduct and exploitation of the system, but that the results desired by government were not monitored or met each season.
As a result, senior agriculture ministry officials now concede that the hundreds of millions of pula spent annually on ISPAAD mostly went to waste, while the perennial droughts in the past decade meant that government coughed up even more millions on drought relief measures.