Minister of Economy Optimistic About Credit to Agriculture

2 June 2011

Luanda — The minister of Economy, Abraão Pio Gougel, Thursday in Luanda, expressed optimism about the success of the credit to agriculture for investment officially launched on Thursday here.

According to the minister, the credit will facilitate the access of Angolan small and medium scale agro-farming producers to funds.

Abraão Gourgel was speaking at the workshop on “Operationalisation of credit to agriculture for investment and business opportunity” sponsored by the Angola Development Bank (BDA), in his capacity as responsible for the project funding institution.

He said the results of the process appear to be satisfactory, alike the agricultural campaign credit.

“I would like to recall that initially there was much scepticism about the success of the agricultural campaign credit,” he said, adding that there was a generalised opinion that the credit would not operate, but the results have proved otherwise.

According to Abrahão Gourgel, the success of the agricultural campaign credit that has benefited more than 20,000 peasants from various provinces of the country, was owed to the engagement of the four banks involved in the programme, namely BPC, BMF, SOL and BCI and the Technical Commission for Agricultural Credit Follow-up.

The minister said it is the Government’s purpose to promote, through the credit to agriculture for investment, a modern, competitive and prosperous agriculture, capable of generating revenues, based on various goods and contributing to the strengthening of the national farming sector.

According to the official, the credit to agriculture for investment will be granted by BDA and other commercial banks that have joined the project, with rates of interest of 6,7 percent a year, valid for three years and refund of up to eight years.

The costs of the credit line will be undertaken by the National Development Fund (FND) and run by BDA.

The Usd 150,000 campaign credit and the Usd 200 million investment credit were approved on April 14 last year. The former has been in operation for a few months now, and has reached Usd 38 million, according to the coordinator of the Technical Commission, José Bento.

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