Growing together with AFC
About the AFC Holdings
The AFC Holdings (100% government-owned) is a newly formed group of companies comprising of the following subsidiaries:
• AFC Land and Development Bank of Zimbabwe;
• AFC Commercial Bank (formerly Agribank);
• AFC Leasing Company; and
• AFC Insurance Company.
It is a one-stop shop for development finance, commercial banking, insurance, and leasing with special focus on agriculture development. The AFC Holdings Group reports, through the Board of Directors, to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement.
The holding company houses all the services that are shared across its subsidiaries to ensure a lean management structure. This will lower the staff costs, whilst retaining a structure able to provide efficient service for the whole group.
The following services will be shared amongst the subsidiaries, unless otherwise prohibited or expressly provided for in regulations governing the respective operations of the various subsidiaries:
• Company Secretariat & Corporate Services;
• Human Resources;
• ICT & Innovation Hub; Internal Audit;
• Procurement;
• Legal & Compliance;
• Strategy and Marketing;
• Treasury;
• International Banking;
• Risk Management; and
• Branch infrastructure and Office network and facilities
Shared services and functions eliminates the need for replicating the services across subsidiaries, which would otherwise require heavy capital deployment at inception. This approach optimises the cost of both setting up and maintaining this structure.
The AFC Holdings runs under the pay off line “Growing together” signifying the inclusivity of the services to be offered under the holdings and ensuring synchronisation of shared value between the group and its customers.
AFC Land and Development Bank
The AFC Land and Development Bank is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) expressly established to provide agricultural financing across all types of farmers in the country to support agriculture production and productivity for food and nutrition security.
The establishment of the AFC Land and Development Bank is part of the agriculture transformation process which is being driven by the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy which is currently being implemented by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement. The strategy will transform agriculture into a US$8,2 billion gross value of agriculture production and US$4,6 billion gross value of exports by 2023.
Going by the tagline “Transforming Agriculture”, the Land and Development Bank is there to transform agricultural production in Zimbabwe by providing financial support for primary production to all categories of farmers, on favorable conditions and accommodative requirements.
The AFC Land Bank will also provide medium and long term capital for agriculture infrastructure development (dams and irrigation infrastructure, Paddocks, mechanisation, equipment, storage and factory machinery).
Accordingly, the AFC Land Bank’s financing to agriculture will include: i. A2 Commercial Farmers; ii. Resettled Farmers; iii. A1 Farmers; iv. Small Holder; and v. Communal Farmers.
The AFC Land and Development Bank will focus on all sub sectors of agriculture in Zimbabwe, among them: i. Grain/Cereals (Maize, Soya, and Wheat); ii. Cash Crops (Tobacco, Cotton, Sugar Cane, Macadamia) iii. Horticulture and Fresh Produce iv. Forests and Plantations v. Fisheries vi. Livestock, Dairy and Small Ruminants (piggery; poultry, road runners) vii. Agro Processing
In discharging its mandate, the AFC Land and Development Bank will also champion youth and Gender mainstreaming, financial inclusion and markets development.
The AFC Commercial Bank
Agribank is being rebranded to AFC Commercial
Bank. Essentially, the Bank will continue operating as a commercial bank with all of Agribank’s existing relationships, facilities and products.
Our clients will not be required to open new accounts, but will continue using their existing accounts. Implicitly, the transformation from Agribank to AFC Commercial Bank will not disrupt any current operations, but will result in enhanced commercial banking services to our customers.
The transformation to AFC Commercial Bank presents vast opportunities for the Bank to expand its product offering. The new pay off line for the AFC Commercial Bank “Integrity. Diligence. Innovation” is assuring, forward looking and indicative of the modernization of the Bank’s services.
The AFC Commercial Bank will be the banker to all the AFC Subsidiaries, including all customers of the Land and Development Bank. Synergies with the other AFC Holding subsidiaries will create business for the AFC Commercial Bank, thereby resulting in increased deposits and a growing loan book and enhanced commercial banking services to the market.
The bank will remain a loan granting and deposit taking commercial bank, subject to the supervision of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. In line with its mandate the AFC Commercial Bank’s main business is as follows:
a) Corporate and Retail Banking Services
b) Treasury and International Banking services
c) Financing of all sectors of the economy
d) SME s and Micro Finance
e) Agency business (Zinara Licensing, Bancassurance and Electricity Vending)
The Bank delivers its products and services through ICT channels such as:
• Digital and virtual banking channels (Mobile and Internet Banking)
• Point of Sale Machines and Agency Banking USSD short code (*277#)
The AFC Commercial Bank will remain one of the largest Branch networks in Zimbabwe and the most expansive with 45 branches located in the 10 provinces of the country.
The AFC Leasing Company
The AFC Leasing Company was established to offer agriculture equipment leasing services and mechanization to farmers. The Leasing Company seeks to capacitate farmers to increase their production and productivity by enhancing their operational efficiency through availing mechanised equipment.
The company’s main mandate is to improve Agricultural production and productivity by offering affordable agricultural equipment for hire.
Productivity is also a key focus which will ultimately increase yields for farmers. The Leasing company has, available for hire, combine harvesters, tractors and planters received under the government initiated Belarus and John Deer mechanisation facilities.
More equipment, including that for irrigation, will be availed as government continue to support the company through mechanisation and other additional farmer capacitating programs. This will greatly increase the country’s agricultural production capacity.
The AFC Leasing Company is already operating across all of the country’s provinces and provides the following services:
• Tillage services
• Tractors hiring
• Combine harvesters hiring
• Advisory services
• Operating and Finance leasing
• Other agriculture equipment hiring
The AFC Insurance Company
The AFC Insurance Company has been established to provide comprehensive agriculture insurance products as well as general insurance products.
One of the major advantages being offered by the Insurance Company is risk mitigation for the Group Companies, in terms of default cover for the lending companies and asset protection for the leasing company.
The Insurance Company will ride on the wide AFC Commercial Bank presence across the country to grow its clientele. AFC Insurance Company Ltd will capitalise on the bank’s experience to mobilise a pool of customers from private as well as public institutions as these are related services.
Some of the products to be offered under the products to be offered by the insurance company include: Crop Insurance, including weather index insurance, Short Term Insurance, micro insurance for farmers, among others. The major drive is to ensure that farmers and the AFC holding customers get covered against any insurable risks that they face.
Indeed with insurance, the future of farmers and our customers is secured today.