NDB SET TO BECOME AN AGRICULTURAL BANK
The National Development Bank (NDB) is set to become an agriculture bank, as government continues to rationalize its ministries and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in a bid to enhance service delivery, accountability and good governance.
When delivering the key note address at the Mosisedi Commercial Farmers Association Harvest Day celebrations over the weekend, Minister of Finance Peggy Serame announced that plans were underway to convert NDB into a fully-fledged agric-bank that will focus its energies on supporting and financing the agriculture sector.
The declaration came as no surprise, as NDB has over the years gradually shifted its focus to the agriculture sector. The bank has previously invested 40 -50 percent of its total budget in agriculture every year as it strived to align with government’s commitment to boosting agro-production and commercializing the cattle breeding, horticulture and dryland farming. NDB was formed in 1963 by an Act of Parliament as Development Financial Institution which has over the years funders several sectors of the economy. Meanwhile, President Mokgweetsi Masisi has recently announced that government will eliminate duplication and overlaps of portfolios through restructuring and merging of some SOEs. The number of these SOEs has grown over the years and this has had a cumulative impact on the efficiency, effectiveness and running costs of government. In this regard, several SOEs will be restructured,” said President Masisi. NDB has been a key financier in Mosisedi and Pandamatenga, injecting P47 million and P344 million respectively in the two farming hot spots between 2015-2020. The 10,
000-hectare Mosisedi Farms is one of the 16 crop clusters established by the Ministry of Agriculture and managed by the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA). Speaking at the harvest day, Director Policy & Planning Jayson Sechele explained that SEZA intends to develop the Mosisedi Cluster as a way of boosting production and facilitating value addition. “We will ramp up production through development of a service center, grain storage silos and One Stop Service Centre. We will also develop strong linkages with the Lobatse Meat and Leather City and its clusters for fodder production,” he said. SEZA has also been affected by the rationalization exercise, with its investment attraction portfolio moving to Botswana Investment and Trade Center (BITC) while the Authority remained with the responsibility of establishing, developing, managing and regulating Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Said President Masisi: “All the investment promotion activities of BITC, SEZA and the Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO) will be combined into one entity.” Currently, SEZA has 8 Special Economic Zones, amongst them Adamantina, Francistown and Sir Seretse Khama which are all at various stages of development.