Government has paid out loans amounting to K78,535,012 Million under the Sustainable Agriculture Financing Facility (SAFF) in Lusaka Province to 637 farmers.
This is with the aim of the significant increase in farmers accessing the loans from the January 2025 report where the number stood at 380.
The total farmer allocation currently for all the six districts of Lusaka Province stands at 2,311, while the total tagged applicants stands at 4,160.
This is contained in a statement issued to ZANIS by Lusaka Provincial Administration, Principal Public Relations Officer, Logic Lukwanda today.
Mr Lukwanda announced that from the current 637 beneficiaries, 270 are female while 365 are male.
“SAFF is a market-based initiative for tailor made financing to the agriculture sector especially for small and medium scale farmers who more often than not have limited access to affordable financing,” he said.
He said Chilanga District has seen 179 farmers acquiring SAFF loans with a total amount of K21,838,000 Million given out, while Chongwe, accessed K33,900,562 Million among other districts.
“Kafue district has had 105 farmers access K9,404.936 (million), Luangwa has had six farmers access K160,000 while Lusaka District has 99 farmers accessing a total of K8,379, 837 (million) and Rufunsa District with 41 farmers who have accessed K4,851,677 (million),” he noted.
He emphasised that the Government remains steady fast to ensure that progressive initiatives such as SAFF realises the intended impact on the people, food security in addition to economic impact.
