Filp beneficiaries to repay through OBM

The Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (Medf) and Opportunity Bank Malawi (OBM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see beneficiaries of government’s Farm Input Loan Programme (Filp) repaying loans through the bank.

Filp commenced in the 2013/14 growing season and was implemented through Malawi Enterprise Development Fund Limited (Medf), formerly Malawi Rural Development Fund (Mardef).

The programme—whose beneficiaries are cooperatives, associations, farmer clubs or savings and credit groups and youths with potential to repay loan—is expected to help promote commercialisation of farming at smallholder level and eventually increase agriculture productivity at national level.

OBM chief operations officer, Wilson Moleni, told Business News in Lilongwe in the aftermath of signing the agreement that Filp beneficiaries will be accorded an opportunity to repay the farm input loans through OBM’s physical branches, mobile vans and other outlets spread across the country.

Currently, OBM has 34 physical branches,14 mobile vans, 10 sales offices, 32 ATMs and 73 Banki Mkhonde cash points or agents across the country, making it the bank with the biggest number of access points in the country, according to Moleni.

“As a bank, we believe strategic alliances are key growth of business in modern world,” said Moleni.

He said the presence of multiple access points does not only create convenience to Medf clients but also reduce the distance that clients were travelling to make their deposit for loan repayment before signing the agreement.

Moleni said OBM believes that the signing of the agreement will effectively reduce the cost of accessing financial services for Filp clients.

He said the bank will provide excellent customer service to the loan beneficiaries.

Currently, OBM has more than 600 000 customers of which 55 percent are women, according to Moleni.