Some farmers and fishermen have hailed the decision by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to raise the needed funds to recapitalise the bank.
At a stakeholders’ consultation in Accra yesterday, they said the move would enable the bank to support the agricultural sector of the economy and urged it to go ahead with its intended initial public offer (IPO) geared towards raising about GHc300 million to fund growth and revamp the operations of the bank to make it more competitive.
“We think this bank needs to be strengthened. We have come to a consensus that we have to support the bank to be able to achieve its aim.”
“We hope that management will do its best to ensure that all the difficulties or bottlenecks are removed and all that is needed to be done is done to make sure this IPO process goes through smoothly,” Mr Philip Abayori, the President of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG), said.
Farmers and fishermen had, in the past, expressed concern over their inability to access the needed funding from the ADB to boost their operations.
But the bank had always maintained that it had supported agriculture and agribusiness with at least 32 per cent of its loan portfolio.
The challenge, it had always stressed, was raising enough money to meet the expectations of farmers.
ADB MD
The Managing Director of ADB, Mr Stephen Kpordzi, who engaged the farmers and fishermen on the bank’s readiness to float shares on the stock market, said with the current ownership structure, ADB was not able to access medium and long-term funds from financial institutions such as the International Financial Corporation (IFC).
“They do have lines of credit for agriculture and small and medium-scale enterprises. You can access between five and 15-year lines but they will not deal with a 100 per cent state-owned organisation. They like to deal with the private sector,” he said.
Currently, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) owns 48 per cent of ADB, with the rest being owned by the government. The BoG is offsetting all its shares because, according to the new rules, it cannot be a regulator and an operator at the same time.
The government also seeks to whittle down its shares in the institution.
Mr Kpordzi told the farmers and fishermen that the bank would commit resources to agriculture because about 60 per cent of the Ghanaian population were in agribusiness.
He urged the farmers and fishermen to support the intended IPO to give them the necessary leverage in the workings of the bank.
Contributing to the discussion, Mr Patrick Kwame Ahiabu, the Secretary of the Ghana Tomato Farmers Federation, said the decision by the bank to list on the stock market was a laudable one and urged all to support the move.
“This is a laudable idea. It is an opportunity some of us have been yearning for, for a very long time, so that we can also own a part of the bank. You need to speed up the process,” he said.
Source: graphic
