Working in line with vision 2030, President E D Mnangagwa has on the 30th of April 2021 launched the Agricultural Financing Corporation (AFC). Vision 2030 is aimed at making Zimbabwe a prosperous and empowered upper middle income nation. AFC Holdings is expected to play a very crucial role in turning this vision into a reality.
Agribank, which was focused on lending to farmers has been rebranded to the just launched AFC Holdings. This move has been set to cover a larger scope than Agribank used to. Other services to be incorporated are Insurance and Commercial Banking. AFC Holdings has four subsidiaries.
The other four subsidiaries and their functions are as follows:
- AFC Land Development Bank which funds primary agriculture
- AFC Commercial Bank which was known as Agri Bank which offers commercial bank services.
- AFC Insurance for insurance Services to cover both agricultural activities and non-agric activities
- AFC Leasing
This move works in line with the president’s aim to make Zimbabwe the bread basket of Africa once again as he mentioned at a virtual meeting with other African Heads of States yesterday.
While others are praising this re-branding others are calling this recycling of deadwood. This is because AFC was infact in existence starting in the 1970s as a vibrant bank helping white Rhodesian farmers. It later collapsed due to alleged unpaid loans by government officials.
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