AgLeaseCo IS HERE TO MECHANIZE ZAMBIA

Small scale and emergent farmers are faced with a myriad of hurdles that hinders them from exploiting their potential to culminate into growth in their agricultural activities.

And common among the uncountable challenges that these small scale and emergent farmers face is lack of access to finance.

But the worries to do with lack of access to finance that the small scale and emergent farmers have been encountering must be deemed as a thing of the past because Agricultural Leasing Company (AgLeaseCo) is here to solve all the financial hiccups that these farmers are going through.

AgLeaseCo is a non-banking financial institution that offers access to finance to small scale and emergent farmers.

It was registered in 2018 under the non-banking financial institution license number 131 of 2018 to finance small scale and emergent farmers.

AgLeaseCo’s main objective is to mechanize Zambian small scale and emergent farms through the finance lease.

A finance lease

A finance lease is an agreement between two parties, the lessor and lessee. The lessor (legal owner of the asset) provides the lessee with an asset for usage and possession for a specified period, in return for specified payments.  

“So, we’re funded by the Germany government through KfW which is a Germany state owned Development bank and African Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund (AATIF). AATIF is an innovative Public Private Partnership (PPP) dedicated to uplift Africa’s agriculture potential for the benefit of the poor,” stated Mr. Mundia AgLeaseCo Regional Manager for Northern region and eastern part of Central province.    

He indicated that at inception in 2018/2019 the company was present in three provinces namely Eastern, Central and Copperbelt. The clientele base of AgLeaseCo was very low comprising very few farmers that came on board.

But with the passage of time the number of farmers that have come on board is very impressive.

“Now we have more than 1,000 of our clientele base and now we’re running in all the chiefdoms, districts and all the provinces within Zambia. So, within the shortest period of time AgLeaseCo has grown progressively and the clientele base has increased massively,” noted Mr. Mundia.

He stated categorically that it’s the small scale and emergent farmers of this country who really have a rough time to access finance from numerous financial institutions due to the cumbersome procedures that inmost cases involves the provision of collateral which in most cases is not available to the farmers of this magnitude.

AgLeaseCo’s finance lease product can easily be accessed by small scale and emergent farmers for the reason that:

·        No collateral is required.

·        Fixed interest rate

·        Fixed exchange rate

·        Choice of equipment is entirely up tothe farmer.

·        Flexible repayment schedule i.e., 24months, 36 months, 48 months, and 60 months.

·        Rebate (discount) to compliantclients.

He said that the most important thing that the companyconsiders before approving the lease is farmer’s willingness and ability to payback.  

“We additionally get recommendations from traditionalleaders because we work closely with them (headmen, chief representatives andchiefs themselves) to find out how the farmers are faring in their chiefdoms,”explained Mr. Mundia.

The farmers select their equipment that best suitstheir farming needs from the suppliers that we are partnered with. Thesuppliers provide technical and product know-how on compatibility of equipmentinterest to the farmer's needs. The suppliers additionally provide aftersalesservices to the farmer’s that AgLeaseCo finances. Currently the suppliers thatwe’ve partnered with are: SARO, CAMCO, GROWMORE, TATA Zambia Ltd and FES.

Benefits of Mechanization

·        Increases productivity

·        Reduces cost of labour

·        Time efficient

·        Value addition to the produce

AgLeaseCo works with reputable Zambian based suppliers to make it easy for the farmers to access the equipment and to also have their equipment serviced easily. The company finance’s:

·        Agro processing/ value chain and/or value addition equipment  

·        Land preparation, crop protection, planting and fertilizer application equipment

·        Irrigation equipment

·        Livestock equipment

For more details on leasing product fromAgLeaseCo kindly get in touch with the company’s marketing team on 0964 809776, 0964 712 668 and 0760 060 508 or send an email to chinso@agleaseco.comand sarah@agleaseco.com

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