THE Agricultural Bank of Namibia (Agribank) has adopted new credit evaluation norms, and now offers longer grace periods for loan repayments, effective 1 December 2017.
According to a media statement issued on Monday by its chief executive officer, Sakaria Nghikembua, the production standards in the cash flow assumptions used in the credit evaluation process have been aligned to the prevailing market rules and production environment.
The bank has further aligned the instalment repayment for cycles to the operational cash flows of the farming activities being financed.
Nghikembua emphasised that the bank has adopted a new pricing structure in its credit assessment assumptions for livestock, linked to the prevailing market conditions.
For the crop production sector, the main cash flow assumptions are the potential yield and production cost per hectare.
“These assumptions are not fixed, and fluctuate across farm units and production areas owing to variation in soil profiles, technical capacity and water availability,” he said.
The new prices are beneficial to existing and prospective clients as they are much higher than the previous prices, while increasing the scope of the quality amounts for clients with improved cash flow projections.
Nghikembua said for farming activities that are short-term in nature, which include horticulture production as well as grain crops under irrigation and dry land, the bank now offers a grace period of eight months before loan repayments commence.
The grace period for medium-term activities such as livestock for speculation is now 18 months, up from 12 months previously.
“Repayments for livestock weaner production loans for beginners will now be due in 24 months with a reduced loan term of eight years, instead of the previous 12 months over a 10-year loan term,” he noted.
– Nampa
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