1ST COLD CHAIN SUMMIT GETS E100 000 BOOST

MBABANE -In line with its developmental mandate, Eswatini Bank has become the first sponsor of the inaugural Cold Chain Summit to be staged in the Kingdom of Eswatini.

The summit is scheduled to be held from August 7-8, 2019 at the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre in Manzini. It is championed by the National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard) on behalf of government.

The bank’s E100 000 sponsorship was announced by Eswatini Bank Managing Director Zakhele Lukhele yesterday at the company’s head offices in Mbabane. This amount made the bank a diamond sponsor of the summit.

Lukhele said they were happy to be part of the Cold Chain Summit and they believed that it would go a long way in empowering and assisting farmers in their businesses, enhance food security, and make agriculture better financeable for them as a bank.

Happy

“We are happy to be part of this initiative because it will bring increased business opportunities for the farmers we finance and also enhance the country’s food security,” he said. Lukhele said by virtue of their development mandate, Eswatini Bank was a major player in the economic development of the country, and financing agriculture remains one of their strong pillars of existence.The bank finances agricultural projects in sugarcane, maize, banana, cattle, and piggery as investment in economic development.

He said they were happy to see NAMBoard actively involved in farmer development and assisting them to access markets for their produce.
“The bank is proud to be part of the Cold Chain Summit because this initiative will assist our customers who are farmers to establish and/or strengthen their alliances, networks and knowledge that will immensely improve their businesses. This is important for farmers to generate income for themselves and be able to service their loans with the bank,” he said.

Contribute

“The summit will also contribute towards the country’s export sales, wealth retention and distribution along the agricultural value chain. We hope this initiative will grow and achieve even greater results in future,” he further stated.
NAMBoard Chief Executive Officer Siphephiso Dlamini said they were extremely excited to receive the sponsorship from Eswatini Bank, a key stakeholder in the country’s agribusiness sector.

“This is a reflection of the bank’s commitment to the agribusiness sector and we have no doubt that it will extend to yield significant spin offs to your strategy of robustly financing businesses across our value-chain, including input suppliers, farmers, transporters, processors, retailers, and more,” said Dlamini.

Reading

He said they were reading beyond the bank’s contribution, to the creation of a relationship that would go on to grow the volume of produce that could meet the country’s demand, further increase exports sales, and consequently increase agriculture’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Dlamini said their intentions of hosting the summit was to journey together with financiers, farmers, input suppliers, seed specialists, academia, and modern-day irrigation specialists into the new world of technologies and innovations of cold chain management needed by the country to exponentially grow local fresh products for both internal and export markets.

Dlamini said they looked forward to a lasting relationship with the bank and assured the bank that there was much business to be made during and after the summit.

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