VIDEO: Prime Minister Appeals To Local Banks to Support Farmers with Loans

1. Talk di tings, PM! Time fi banks see agriculture as business, not charity.

2. bLoan? Me can’t even get overdraft, much less financing fi pig pen.

3. PM right — banks must back the hand that feed we!

4. Total economic collapse who can stop Gods and works ?????????

5. Loan officer cyan spell ‘agriculture’ but quick fi say it too risky.

6. whatever happened to the antigua development bank again?

7. @good thought May 27, 2025 At 9:28 am
   Well in case you forgot. The UPP bankrupt that bank too. Remember the UPP took money from MBS and put it into the bank and then loan the same money out to a scamp that was bought a boat that could not sail on our waters. Over ten million dollars gone a gwassa. And many other bad loans. They got ten million dollars from Stanford to loan to small businesses and that also they squandred.

8. Put up govt land as collateral. The people are in business not charity

9. It is sad when our Prime Minister who was a banker by profession makes statements that the ordinary man and woman do not comprehend. One such idiot was Audley Phillip. Making funds avialable doesn’t mean giving away money. It simply mean target this sector in our economy with your loan porfolio. And if you want to mitigate your risk the government is willing to give loan garantees. You know how much the banks loses on bad loans for cars. But jet they continue to give car loans. Infact they have promotional weeks when you can spin a wheel or something to win a low interest car loan or mortgage. Since they do not easily qualify low income earners to get a mortgage, the government had to start their own housing project where when a propestive homeowner goes to the bank for a loan, they have equity in the porperty already. How does it work. The government will sell you a house worth $300K for $200K. Which means you already have one third equity in the house. The bank will take that house as collateral and has the value of the house to back that up. I hope we do not have persons that will default on their mortgage, becasue the banks will sell that house easily and get back their money. The farminf industry is different. There is not much the bank can hold on to. Unless the farmer has freehold land or another property. Next the farmer need to demonstrate that he or she is a qualified/certified farmer. That he or she can present the bank with a prop[er busines plan of the farm business. Showing best case and worst case scenario. Note that banks do not have the knowhow of how to assess the risk in this industry. But surely you will not give a loan to someone to go and grow one Pawpaw three. Therefore giving loans in the farming industry is a very risky and technical thing. What I do suggest is for farmers to come together as a corporation to get loans. Not as individuals. As the saying goes, ‘”there is strenght in unity”. and there is also much more collateral. One of the now biggest bank in Holland and Germany started as a Farmers’ Cooperative. They had the same issue of not being able to get loans from the banks. But because they grew so large that they started to have excess funds. They then decided to lend to none members and before you know it they became a full bank. We see the same developing with our Credit Unions. They started small and are now almost operating as full banks. The farmers should consider doing the same thing. And the government should be assisting them in getting off the ground. The same way the PM is assisting the hotel workers in forming their own Union, he should assist the farmers in establishing their own credit union. Let the banks do what they want to. They will sooner or later fall in line. The main revenue earning of a bank should be its loan portfolio. But these days their main revenue earner are the various fees they charge their customers. Shame on them. The governments of the ECCU should pass laws/policies to prevent them that lazy income stream. It burdens the economy. And it keeps the people poor. Anyone with a savings account now looses money every year with the interest rate being less than the inflation rate.

10. The CIP money supposedly lodge at Stuart bank as you fooled us to believe should be used as collateral to back farmers loan. Not empathy as you are doing here Gaston, the banks can’t use empathy as collateral.

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