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Home | Agriculture Minister welcomes Sagicor’s new loan facility to agro-processors
Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Pearnel Charles Jr, speaking at the launch of Sagicor Bank’s new credit facility at Creative Industry Limited in Kingston on February 15, 2022. The loan facility is designed to assist medium-sized agro-processors and manufacturers retool and expand their businesses.
Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Pearnel Charles Jr, has welcomed Sagicor Bank’s new loan facility to agro-processors and manufacturers, which will see medium-sized businesses benefit from loans up to $50 million at an interest rate of 6.5%.
“This is a tangible demonstration of the faith that Sagicor has in our medium-sized manufacturing and agro-processing businesses, which, undoubtedly, will redound to an enhancement of the overall productive infrastructure,” said Charles Jr.
Describing the loan facility as a bold move, Charles added that while farmers have expressed an interest in expanding their business they have indicated that they are being hampered by the lack of affordable financing options.
He said the provision of economic support to farmers was critical to achieving full commercialisation of the agro-processing sector and called for cooperation from all stakeholders to make it a reality.
Minister Charles was speaking at the launch of Sagicor Bank’s manufacturing and agro-processing loan on February 15, held at Creative Industry Limited in Kingston.
The Agriculture and Fisheries Minister reiterated the importance of Government providing an enabling environment and said the Ministry has embarked on the implementation of an Agribusiness Cold Chain Project, which was made possible through grant funding of US$1.05 million from the Government and people of Morocco.
The project, he said, will see the establishment of several mobile pre-cooling and packing facilities as well as a network of temperature data loggers in the cold rooms and trucks.
For her part, Chorvelle Johnson Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer at Sagicor Bank, said the facility was created to facilitate Jamaican manufacturing and agro-processing businesses to position themselves for growth as the economy begins to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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