TIRANA, May 28 /ATA/ Second-level banks in the country increased lending to agriculture during 2024.
The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko, announced that, “agricultural credit increased by 14% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period a year ago.”
During the presentation of the “Annual Report 2023” of the Bank of Albania at the meeting of the Parliamentary Economy and Finance Committee, Governor Sejko said that, “agriculture is a sector with great potential to increase lending.”
According to him, the sovereign guarantee scheme with 1 billion lek for farmers is another support for farmers, which gives them access to loans from second-level banks.
Sejko said that, “the issues that hinder crediting of agriculture come down to the lack of guarantees and collaterals for loans, the lack of information, the high fragmentation of land (shareholder farms),” adding that rural lending is also stimulated by other schemes launched by the government for the financial support of agriculture.
During 2023, banks granted 2.7 billion ALL in loans to the agriculture sector and agri-processing.
Referring to BoA statistics, compared to a year ago, the specific share of the loan granted to agriculture increased by 5.6%.
/r.e/sm/
