Tanzania: Accessbank Opens Door to Lake Zone Farmers

FARMERS in the Lake Zone have a reason to smile after AccessBank Tanzania moved to the area to extend loans to farmers.
Speaking to 'Sunday News' at the 37th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) grounds, the Bank's Marketing Officer, Mr Sijaona Simon said the bank has started with Kahama and will later on go to different areas of Lake Zone.
"There have been calls from the public that we spread our wings to the whole country and we are responding to the call beginning with Kahama. The focus is aimed at providing loans to farmers in the Lake Zone area," he explained.
He said the bank has quickly evolved into a recognised provider of financial services to micro, small and medium sized client since it was established in the country in 2007, due to its timely loans applications.
"We are among the fastest banks in the market place when it comes to the processing times of account opening and loan applications, we do not have extra charges when issuing loans, if you apply for 10 million that is what you get at the end of the day," he explained.
He said the bank has received several awards for being the most easily accessible and the most customer focused bank in the country. Currently, the bank has nine branches with more than 64,000 customers and has already issued more than 200bn/- in loans to SMEs.
"Although AccessBank is still a young bank, we have already evolved into one of the recognised and preferred financiers of SMEs. We do not aim to become one of the largest banks in the country but we do aim to set industry standards in terms of customer service, speed and efficiency, he explained.
The bank is part of the AccessBank Group, a globally expanding network of commercial banks with special focus on microfinance, with holding headquarters in Berlin/ Germany.
Other affiliates within the group are based in various other African and non-African countries including Madagascar, Nigeria, Liberia, Zambia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Brazil.

Tanzania: Fortification Will Increase Food Safety

THE Micronutrient Initiative (MI) which has been funding some programmes at Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre and some programmes with East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA) in Arusha, just released its report, 'Fortifying Africa's future,' which casts a grim picture of how much of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost annually due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
For Tanzania, which has not yet started fortifying flour, wheat, oil or sugar, the estimated prevalence of iron deficiency of percentage in children under five years is 65.
It notes, for example, that 75 grams of a maize meal (ugali or uji), an adult portion, fortified to the levels recommended for East, Central and Southern Africa, would contribute between 15 and 46 per cent of the daily requirement for a range of vitamins and minerals.

Kenya Country Director for MI, Chris Wanyoike, told this reporter that they look forward to offering consultant services to Tanzania organisations when fast tracking fortification starts.
Some programmes MI has been involved include when ECSA was helping in formulating Standards for Kenya and Uganda. ECSA also boasts of an initiative, the Regional Food Fortification Network whose Secretariat is based in Arusha. ECSA member states participating in this initiative are; Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Other countries in the region that are also participating include Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Madagascar and Rwanda. The collaborating partners in this initiative are UNICEF, A2Z Project, MI and with financial and technical support from USAID/EAST AFRICA and UNICEF-ESARO.
They now all agree that working with small millers where a big part of the population get their flour for meals should be approached differently because it would have costs involved in providing them with equipment like Micro feeds and other premix forticants.
"We can not use the same concept, it is a social investment, not commercial and a programme that could take six years, " said Mr Wanyoike. Currently, Kenya, for example, supplies salt to 8 countries. "So, if you fortify salt in Kenya, you will have influenced the health of all these countries," he said.

Tanzania: Farming Machinery to Cost Less

THE government has been commended for abolishing Value Added Tax (VAT) on imported agriculture equipment as the move will enable more farmers in the country to engage in improved farming practices.
The Chief Operating Officer of Farm Equip (T) Ltd, a company that imports and supplies agriculture machines, Mr Rattan Singh, told the 'Daily News' that the government's decision was welcome as small-scale farmers are now in a position to own the equipment.
He said that his company was now planning to supply more such machines particularly small tractors popularly known as power tillers whose demand has increased in recent years. "We praise the government on this noble move.

The 18 per cent VAT previously imposed on farming tools could stymie the envisaged agriculture revolution which is sought in most parts of the country," he said. The company, which supplies Kubota power tillers and whose prices are slightly lower than those attached to other machines, challenges the government to support individual farmers to manage them.
In the last two years, he said, the company supplied more than 500 power tillers to farmers in Mbeya, Morogoro, Dodoma, Rukwa and Iringa regions. Except for Dodoma, these regions are considered to be the national bread basket.

The company's General Manager, Mr Naushad Khan, said that most of the farming machines are bought on loan basis by a number of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) in Mbeya, Morogoro, Dodoma, Rukwa and Iringa regions.
He added that his company now plans to supply the equipment to other regions. The company targets Katavi, Ruvuma, Lindi and Mtwara as a second priority. "We are equally participating in Kilimo Kwanza by making sure that farmers get modern and affordable machines to sustain their agricultural undertakings.
The only problem we face is that very few individual farmers can afford to buy these machines," he said. Farm Equip is one of the private companies which were licensed by the government to import, sell and supply agri-merchandize gear to farmers.

Currently due to the fact that they are sold on loan basis, each power tiller costs 6.3m/- but the price could probably come down if a larger number of SACCOS and individual farmers could manage to buy them on cash basis.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Engineer Chistopher Chiza, announced recently in Parliament that his ministry had set aside 7.4bn/- this financial year which will be dished out as loans to farmers through the Input Fund.