Only 1,074 households out of 159,484 agricultural households in Namibia managed to secure agricultural loans over the past five years, according to latest government data.
According to the Namibian Statistics Agency’s Census of Agriculture Revised Report, the Oshikoto region recorded the highest number of households that applied for loans, followed by Ohangwena and Omusati.
“Oshikoto recorded the highest number of households (331) that applied for loans, of which 255 (77.0%) households were successful.
“Furthermore, Ohangwena was the second highest region of loan applicants with 241 households, however, only 168 (69.7%) of the households received loans. The third highest region to have applied for loans was Omusati (231 households) with 192 (83.1%) households getting the loans,” the report noted.
Additionally, the NSA report further notes that the main source for the loans was Agribank, with sourcing from family and friends placed second followed by microfinancing institutions as a source of loans.
Moreover, the loan repayment period lasted a maximum duration of three years and a minimum of a year.
“Agribank provided most of the loans (23.2%) to households of which 139 loan applicants received the loans for more than three-year repayment period,” the report said.
“Similarly, family and friends gave loans to 17.1% of the households, where the majority of the loan recipients (131 households) had the loan for less than a year. The result further reveals that 10.6% of the households got loans under shelter/outside and 10.1% got loans from microfinance institutions,” the report said.
It highlighted that most of the agricultural households (32.3%) that received loans in the past five years preceding the census, were reported to have received loans for livestock purposes.
