The Agricultural Finance Corporation to drop land as collateral for loans

The Agricultural Finance Corporation is seeking to drop land as a collateral for loans in a bid to increase the amount accessed by women.

According to a report by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, women only make up for 25 percent of the total AFC loan book despite being the largest workforce in agriculture.

The Agricultural Finance Corporation says it needs about 20 billion shillings to effectively lend farmers to engage in the agriculture value chain.

AFC says it has 10 billion shillings in loan requests from farmers but can only lend 3 billion shillings due capital challenges.

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According to a report by KIPPRA, out of the total loan book, women are the minority accounting for only 25 percent because they are not owning land that is used as collateral by AFC and other financial institutions.

AFC chair Franklin Bett says the corporation is at its final stage of transforming into to a commercial bank to attract more financing to increase lending.

This as the ministry of agriculture has earmarked 2 billion shillings to be invested in the e-voucher system in 11 counties as a way of increasing investment in agriculture.

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