George Kebaso @Morarak

Farmers could soon have a bank of their own after several years of being promised the same to facilitate affordable credit.

Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) chairman, Franklin Bett said plans to transform the institution into are agricultural development bank is still intact. 

However, the announcement made on Friday is not the first. In December last year, Bett also said the plans were at an advanced stage.

In 2016, Managing Director, Lucas Meso announced that after years of recovery from near insolvency, AFC had put its house in order, and was to convert into an agro-bank.

“We are also looking to transform the corporation into an agro-bank to enable mobilisation of savings and deposits.

We will convert it into a full-fledged agricultural development bank offering all services that a farmer would wish for,” he said at the time.

Speaking during the inauguration of new board members on Friday, Bett said the institution is now ready to actualise the dream of having turning itself into a fully fledged bank.

“We are at a stage where we can easily say we are ready to host the farmers’ bank,” he said.

Bett said the new institution will be modelled around the success stories of agricultural banks in countries such as India, Malaysia, Thailand and China.