Togo: President Gnassingbé launches MIFA to boost agribusiness

Agriculture

Tuesday, 26 June 2018 16:01

Togo: President Gnassingbé launches MIFA to boost agribusiness

(Togo First) - Yesterday, President Faure Gnassingbé officially launched the agricultural financing incentive mechanism (MIFA) at the Centre Togolais des Expositions et Foires (Togo 2000) in Lomé.

The scheme aims to boost the performance of the agricultural sector which actually contributes 40% of Togo’s GDP. How? By helping farmers easily secure loans from banks and other financing institutions as the latter are currently reluctant to do so. MIFA, formerly TIRSAL, is based on risk-sharing.

At the moment, only 0.3% of bank loans are invested in agriculture. The MIFA aims to improve this rate to 5% and halve interest rates associated to the loans from 15% to 7.5%. This would help create thousands of direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect ones by 2027.

So far, the scheme is backed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the African Development Bank (AfDB), whose respective heads were beside President Gnassingbé at the launching ceremony; the World Bank and other technical and financial partners, said Sani Yaya, Togo’s minister of economy and finance.

Séna Akoda

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