On the 6th of December 2019, Advans Ghana Savings and Loans joined scores of institutions to participate in the grand durbar for the 35th National Farmers’Day celebration themed: “Enhancing Small Scale Agriculture Towards Agribusiness Development”.
During the durbar, a team from Advans Ghana Savings and Loans led by the Head of Partnerships Development, Alhassan Salley, presented the National Best Cocoa Farmer with a cheque of GH¢3,500 which is in partial fulfillment of the promise made, when the team presented Advans Ghana’s sponsorship package cheque of GH¢20,000 to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MoFA)in support of this year’s farmers’ day celebration on the 27th November 2019
The prize money was presented to Mr. Ernest Sarkodie, designated as the National Best Cocoa Farmer from Sankore in the Ahafo Region to congratulate him for a good job done and help him purchase inputs for his cocoa farm to produce more yield.
Preceding the grand durbar, Advans Ghana occupied a booth at the exhibition grounds, participating in the 4 days exhibition at the Jubilee Park, Ho in the Volta region between 2nd and 5th December.
It was an opportunity for the Advans Ghana team to give training on financial education to all who visited the booth, opening accounts and handing out souvenirs to farmers and other visitors.
A complementary donation will also be given to reward 10 smallholder farmers benefiting from the input loan scheme put in place by Advans Ghana. This participation reflects the increasing commitment of Advans Ghana in the financing of agriculture, especially to give easier access to financial services for smallholder farmers.
From 2016, Advans Ghana has implemented an innovative Agri-lending strategy, gathering key stakeholders (farmers associations, input dealers, etc.) of different Agri-value chains to offer input loans to smallholder farmers at competitively lower rates, and other financial services like savings. Advans has also partnered with institutions like AGRA which supports with technical assistance and training.
Between 2017 and 2109, Advans Ghana has given input loans to 8,313 beneficiary farmers in the rice, cocoa and cashew value chains to enable them to grow more yield and expand their business.
One of the 5 key pillars of the Advans group’s strategy for the years to come, is to focus more and more on agriculture by broadening our range of products and delivery channels for agricultural clients in rural areas in order to increase their financial inclusion.
As an acknowledgment of this innovative approach, the group, through Advans Cote d’Ivoire, won the 2018 European Microfinance Award themed “Financial Inclusion through Technology” for their innovative mobile banking solution for cocoa farmers.