South Sudan Agricultural Bank Delivers Food Items To Be Sold At Subsidised Prices/FILE PHOTO

The Agriculture Bank of South Sudan says it is seeking over 500 million pounds to support farmers across the country.

The Managing Director of the Bank, Rual Makuei Thiang, said the money is meant to provide inputs and machinery to enable farmers improve their production.

Mr. Makuei said currently the Ministry of Finance has allocated 15 million South Sudanese pounds to the Agriculture Bank, which will be given to farmers in form of loans.

“The Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Agriculture has provided to us only 15 million SSP,” he said.

He said the money is meant to provide fuel for farmers who intend to carry out mechanized farming.

Mr. Makuei told Eye Radio that one has to be a South Sudanese national and have supporting documents of ownership of land to be eligible for the financial support.

He said lack of money has hindered their plans to cover all farmers across the country, but he hopes the Ministry of Finance will allocate more funds towards the agriculture sector.

“Our plan is to finance one million hectares. And because of lack of funds and the total among was supposed to be 586 million SSP. This amount was to provide inputs, agricultural machinery and that was the amount we targeted. But due to lack of funds,” Makuei said.

Mr. Makuei said those are applying for the current loans will have to pay a down payment of 10 percentage and installments in five years.