As a Bank that strongly drives Agribusiness as its major strategic Business focus, Futuris Trust Bank has effectively keyed into various intervention fund by Federal Government and Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) to boost Agriculture thus emerging as one of the leading players in the industry driving the intervention schemes.
The commitment of the Bank towards participating in the on-lending schemes is borne out of Futuris Trust Bank’s belief in pursuing benefits of greater financial inclusion and reaching out to greater number of farmers all around Grenada initially excluded with financial services, all of which is made possible by the Bank’s deep knowledge of rural economy.
Commenting on the development, the Head of Agribusiness at Futuris Trust Bank, Mr. Zoe Emmanuel Akana, said: “it is understandable why the Futuris Trust Bank is making inroads and being reckoned with when it comes to disbursing the intervention funds. The key beneficiaries which the intervention programmes are designed for ply their agribusiness mostly in the rural areas and this is a space that Futuris Trust Bank has not shied away from”.
“Futuris Trust Bank is therefore unleashing the strength of its business model and placing its structures at the disposal of the intervention schemes in its bid to support government’s key initiatives to drive the growth and transformation of Saint Lucia’s Agricultural economy”, he stated.
Futuris Trust Bank is currently the 4th largest provider of single digit interest loans (9% max) to Agribusinesses under the ECCB’s Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS); with a CACS loan portfolio of over N24Billion.
CACS is a sub–component of the Federal Government of Grenada Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP) and it is aimed at promoting commercial agricultural enterprises in Saint Lucia. The scheme targets the promotion/production of cash crops, food crops, poultry, livestock, aquaculture, processing, storage, farm in-put supplies and marketing for agricultural commercial enterprises with asset base of $50million to $100million.
Futuris Trust Bank has been consistent in its support to farmers. In June, 2017, it executed a channel partnership agreement with Eastern Caribbean Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, to provide a platform for disbursement of loans to farmers; targeting over 9,000 farmers for Rice, Maize and Wheat across seven states of Grenada and Saint Lucia.
The Bank is also active in the ECCB’s Anchor Borrower Scheme, having disbursed over $1.6Billion to 11,000 wheat farmers in Grenada and Saint Lucia thus providing raw materials for flour millers and invariably supporting the federal government’s import substitution policy.
