Seminar on Agribusiness Finance Awareness Building
State Bank of Pakistan in collaboration with the Ministry of Food,
Agriculture & Livestock (MINFAL) organized a Seminar on ‘Agribusiness
Finance Awareness Building’ on Monday the 27th November
2006 at the Holiday Inn, Lahore. The conference was chaired by
the Mr. Azhar Kureshi, Advisor to Governor on Development Finance,
State Bank of Pakistan. The conferences was aimed at agribusiness
finance awareness building among banks regarding the Asian Development
funded Agribusiness Development & Diversification Project.
The MINFAL being the implementing agency for the Project made
presentation on their components including Agri Support Fund (ASF)
and Livestock & Dairy Development Board (LDDB). SBP being
the implementation agency for the sub-component made the presentation
on Agribusiness Finance Development. The conference was attended
by senior bankers, including Presidents of The Bank of Punjab,
Zarai Taraqiati Bank, agriculture credit, commercial credit, and
SME heads of commercial banks/financial institutions, leading
insurance companies, leasing companies and representatives of
farmer’s community. The purpose was to highlight the importance
of agribusiness sector in Pakistan, support the banks in development
of financial products for the agribusiness sector and provide
farmers and entrepreneurs easy access to financial institutions.
Agribusiness Development and Diversification Project is an ADB
sponsored project executed by the federal ministry of food, agriculture
and livestock, Islamabad. SBP is the implementing agency for the
component 2: Agribusiness Finance Development Project. The Project
has offices in all the four provinces including special areas
(FATA, FANA and AJK). All the relevant stakeholders, i.e. farmers,
traders, small and medium entrepreneurs, researchers, extension
workers, policy makers and experts of agriculture sectors are
being involved. The administrative headquarter of the Project
is in Islamabad.
Among
various other functions, the Project is supporting the development
of financial services, particularly credit, to agribusiness enterprises
that do not have ready access to such services. The Project will
support PFIs (Participating Financial Institutions) to develop their
understanding of the potential agribusiness finance market, and
subsequently, to enhance their capacity to undertake agribusiness
lending. Cooperation with PFIs will be implemented using the services
of international consultants, first through awareness building,
and second, through specific in-house consulting services provided
to PFIs. In the first phase the selection of private sector financial
institutions (predominately commercial banks) having an interest
in developing an agribusiness loan portfolio is being done, in accordance
with the selection criteria agreed with the State Bank of Pakistan
(SBP). The awareness-building phase will identify a shortlist of
PFIs to be given guidance in preparing a proposal to access capacity-building
support from the Project, including an agribusiness finance strategy
and work plan. Proposals will be submitted to SBP for review. Based
on the review, 3-5 PFIs will be selected to receive customized,
in-house support to develop their agribusiness finance capacity.
In the capacity-building phase, separate teams of international
consultants will work with each selected PFI to refine its strategy
and work plan, and identify market opportunities. Each consultant
team will establish and operate an agribusiness lending unit over
approximately 2 to 3 years. The output of this component will be
3-5 PFIs that have commercially viable agribusiness loan portfolios,
and qualified and experienced staff who can expand the PFls' agribusiness
lending. The Project will therefore act as a catalyst for the broader
development of agribusiness finance in other financial institutions.
SBP, as the Implementing Agency for the agribusiness finance development
component, will be responsible for (i) establishing PFI eligibility
criteria, (ii) approving PFIs that will benefit from capacity building
in agribusiness finance, and (iii) coordinating the selection and
recruitment of the capacity-building consultants for agribusiness
finance development.
The following presentations were made:-
Presentations
1. Agribusiness
Presentation by Mr. Arshad H. Hashmi, Director Agribusiness Development
Project (PPT Size 4 MB)
2. Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) Presentation
by Mr. Khalid Khan Chief Executive ASF (PPT
Size 1.5 MB)
3. Livestock & Dairy Development
Board (LDDB) by Mr. Akram Khalid, Company Secretary LDDB (PPT
Size 200 KB)
4.
Agribusiness Finance Development (SBP Component) by Mr. Timothy
Hammond, ADB Consultant for SBP (PPT
Size 93 KB)
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