Mr Samuel Ntim-Adu, the Chief Executive Officer of Yedent Agro Bulk Processing Aggregators, has lauded the efforts of Ecobank Ghana to drive agricultural transformation in the country by donating Dehusker shellers to Yedent.
As part of the Ecobank Ghana’s efforts to strengthening and supporting agribusiness value chain in Ghana, the bank has donated four Dehusker shellers to Yedent Agro Bulk Processing Aggregators in Sunyani. At the presentation ceremony, Mr Samuel Ntim-Adu, while receiving the donations, expressed his appreciation to the bank for its role in agriculture development in the country.
“We are immensely grateful to Ecobank for their support to our business and their commitment to the agribusiness value chain. The support from Ecobank demonstrates that if the right partners come together, we can create the right synergies for the transformation of agriculture in Ghana.”
Mr Samuel Ntim-Adu
Presenting the machines to the aggregators, the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Dan Sackey, indicated that the bank is steadfast in contributing to agriculture development, which is largely dominated by women.
“As a bank, we remain committed to positively impacting the communities we operate in, and we have chosen to support the agribusiness value chain as one of the ways to achieve this objective. It is in line with this objective that Ecobank is today, donating these four dehuskers to the aggregators of Yedent Agro Company. These dehuskers will support a total of 6,000 out-growers and smallholder farmers, 60 per cent of whom are women from 83 communities within the Bono Region.”
Mr Dan Sackey
Mr Dan Sackey is of the belief that the machines donated will motivate the farmers in the community to work extra hard. The Managing Director also marketed the flagship digital platforms of Ecobank Ghana and urged them to take the opportunity to sign onto the platforms to help them achieve their financial objectives.
“It is expected that this donation will spur on our hardworking farmers to cultivate more acreages with the assurance that come harvesting time, these dehuskers will be available to assist them efficiently to process their maize for market consumption. Leveraging our world-class and robust digital platforms, we have also brought banking services to the doorstep of every Ghanaian, including farmers and all operators in the agribusiness value chain through solutions such as: Ecobank Xpress Point, Merchant Account and Xpress Accounts. This donation strengthens the Yedent Value Chain and showcases Ecobank’s commitment to the achievement of inclusive and sustainable financing for agribusiness value chains”.
Mr Dan Sackey
The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene, on her part, stated that the donation from Ecobank will not only offer farmers a ready market for their produce, but job opportunities for young men and women as well as stimulate economic activities in the region. He added that “we are indeed very appreciative of this gesture. In furtherance, I wish to appeal to other banks to emulate Ecobank Ghana and tailor their lending facilities to support farmers expand their output.”
The Technical Advisor to the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Asante Krobea also averred that, in the last five years, the government has invested so much into agriculture to ensure food security both now and in the future. This effort, Mr Asante noted, cannot be borne by government alone and so, “today’s donation by Ecobank is laudable and to ensure further development of the agribusiness value chain, we need many of such private sector partnerships.”
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