Staff Reporter
THE Agricultural Bank of Namibia (AgriBank) has offered to waive penalty interests amounting to about N$83 million for this financial year for all its clients who are in arrears.
This was announced by AgriBank’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Raphael Karuaihe, who explained that this intervention is a gesture of goodwill from the bank and part of the Drought Relief Subsidy. He revealed that the other intervention of the Drought Relief Subsidy is an instalment relief, with a total commitment of N$104.6 million.
Karuaihe said that these interventions under the Drought Relief Subsidy will be effectively implemented from Wednesday, 10 July 2024, but the instalment relief will also apply to clients whose instalments were due from 1 April 2024, who will be credited in full.
“Based on the criteria agreed between ourselves and the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, this intervention of instalment relief is limited to AgriBank clients with farmland and livestock loan accounts only. This relief targets clients who are in good standing and whose instalments fall due from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. In other words, during our financial year period,” Karuaihe explained.
He further explained that clients who fell into arrears between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 would also be considered for the penalty interest waiver, as the bank recognises that farmers were significantly impacted by drought last year.
“While we acknowledge that the instalment relief may not reach each and every affected farmer, we trust that our consideration of waiving the penalty interest for all clients in arrears is a welcome relief to our valued clients,” the CEO said.
Karuaihe pointed out that AgriBank’s main source of sustainable funding comes from client loan repayments, making it financially unfeasible to extend the same relief to all clients at this time.
“We will continue to maintain a flexible approach in our discussions with individual clients in our attempt to find appropriate solutions in line with the bank’s policies and procedures. In other words, even for those clients that do not qualify in terms of the selection criteria to benefit from this relief, our doors are still open for business. We welcome those clients to still come and reach out to us and see how we will be able to assist,” Karuaihe assured.
