A Senior Coordinator of the Agribusiness Management Programme, in the Department of Agric and Economics Extension of the University of Cape Coast, Dr. William Ghartey has blamed farmers for their inability to access credit facilities from financial institutions.
According to him, some farmers after successfully securing loans from financial institutions, divert the monies into different businesses or personal use.
Aside the diversion, Dr. Ghartey also accused some farmers of mischievously burning down their farms after harvesting their produce to avoid the repayment of the loans back to the financial institutions.
He described most (farmers) as unreliable and highly illiterate and for which reason they hardly understand the importance of forming Farmer-Based Organizations (FBO’s) to serve as collateral to leverage the means of accessing the loans from the financial institutions.
Dr. William Ghartey made the attributions in an interview with Captain Adabugar, host of Rite FM’s Morning Ride during the Akuafo Sesen segment of the show, Thursday, to highlight on the reasons why farmers found it difficult to access credit facilities from financial institutions and the way forward to address the situation to the development of the Agric sector.
Dr. William Ghartey however added that though farmers should bell the cat in this regard, the government nevertheless plays a major role in the addressing some of these challenges confronting farmers.
He attributed the hesitation on the part of potential investors in the sector to the “highly risky” farming business and said most banks are as a result not interested in investing in the agric sector.
Government has in times past tasked financial institutions in the country to reserve a special package of their portfolios to farmers which was mandatory, or subsidize the loans given to farmers.
This was to cushion farmers against the high interest rate charged by financial institutions. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case as credit facilities and financial institutions have turned their backs on this.
