The Fiji Development Bank will strengthen its agriculture loans portfolio through more targeted loans product for the sector, says chief executive officer Saud Minam.
He said this was in line with the bank’s intention to focus on agriculture and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as prescribed in the bank’s five-year financial strategic plan launched last week.
“We are working very closely with the Minister for Agriculture,” Mr Minam said.
“We launched the dairy farming loan about a month and a half ago, specifically designed for the dairy farmers so that’s unique as other banks will not even come close to that,” he said in an interview with The Fiji Times after the launch.
“Soon you will be seeing some other products coming in with the Ministry of Agriculture. We’re also working with Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs, in terms of how we can support some of the outer islands.”
He said the bank’s digital platform would also be an important part of service delivery in the next five years.
“So, how do we take our business to our customers, who can’t reach over here. We have come up with the processes which have been approved, which are risk mitigated processes, whereby some of the smaller customers, who are $2000 or $5000 loan customers, don’t need to take the boat or take the bus to come over here.
“They can actually sit at their islands where they have the connectivity and they can apply for the loans. And we’ve been receiving very good feedback.
“The last three years were most of the testing and trials to see how we do it and we do have a very good strong foundation which basically I think the bank can take off from there,” Mr Minam said.
