Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:20:48 +0000
By Mailesi Banda
INDO Zambia Bank has allotted 30, 115, E- vouchers for the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), in three districts in response to Government’s directive for the banks to expedite the loading of funds.
The bank’s head of corporate services, Mr Chenjelani Banda said they had issued visa enabled cards to 872 farmers in Livingstone, 1, 2099 in Nyimba and 17, 144 in Mkushi.
Mr. Banda said the cards issued to the beneficiary farmers have since been received and activated with the farmer’s deposits of K400 and the K1, 600 counterpart funding from Government.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Banda said the bank’s performance in the allotted districts has been impressive, adding that they were waiting for more farmers to pay for them to load their accounts with the money from the government.
“Overall, the FISP E-voucher exercise being conducted by our bank in the allotted three districts is running smoothly and being well coordinated by our respective branches, since supporting government programmes is part of our operational mandate,” he said.
Mr Banda confirmed that the bank has received funds from the government, adding there was need for farmers to make their deposit.
On Monday Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya and her Ministry of Finance counterpart Felix Mutati summoned heads of financial services at the Ministry of Finance to find a solution to the problem of delays in the distribution of the farming inputs, saying it is a risk for low crop production.
The two ministers took heads of financial services to task demanding for an explanation to the delays in dispatching the inputs.
According to reports received by the ministry on Monday morning, 400, 000 farmers had made their deposits for the programme against the 1, 000,000 registered farmers on the programme.
