LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
NMB Zimbabwe Holdings Limited (NMBZ) has invested US$6m in horticulture to help the sector meet growing demand.
NMBZ chief executive officer Gerald Gore told Business Times that the bank will increase the US$6m amount if the demand continues to go up.
“Having seen that there is a huge demand for horticultural products, we decided to put a US$6m fund into the horticulture sector so that it can return to its former glory by ramping up production.
“Blueberries are selling like hotcakes hence we saw the need to support it in a big way,” Gore said.
He said NMBz was aggressively looking for new lines of credit for on-lending to exporters.
This year alone the bank has secured more than US$25m of credit lines with almost all the money being exhausted.
The bank is pushing for more credit lines to support the exporters, especially the horticulture exporters.
The support by NMB comes at a time when the government launched the US$30m Horticulture Export Revolving Fund in September to spur agricultural growth and increase the value of agricultural output through value addition and beneficiation.
The funds are part of the US$961m International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights, which were allocated to Zimbabwe last year.
Government, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, FBC Bank, NMB Bank, CABS Bank, and the AFC Land and Development Bank have signed the Memorandum of Agreement and Term Sheet for the Horticulture Export Revolving Fund, which can be accessed through normal banking channels.
Eligible export horticulture applicants or intended beneficiaries must submit their requests to the participating banks along with the necessary information.
Finance and Development minister Mthuli Ncube said the setting up of a US$30m Horticulture Export Revolving Fund is in line with the 2022 National Budget Statement on the SDR allocation and will go a long way in empowering our farmers to start horticulture projects as, well as acquire value addition facilities that will enable dehydrating, freezing, canning, bottling, extracting, juicing and concentrating their produce.
The resources have the potential to bridge the funding gap and drive increased productivity, as well as finance bankable projects with a value-added focus.
Treasury is targeting strategic sectors with the SDR resources, such as horticulture expansion and value addition, sectors with the potential to generate foreign currency earnings and create jobs, which will have a multiplier effect in growing the economy.
According to the Horticultural Development Council of Zimbabwe, the country’s horticultural exports increased to US$103m by 1997 from only US$6m in the 1987/88 season.
