Last week the Guinea Bissau government reached an agreement with five commercial banks to provide funding for the cashew crop in 2020.
This is a financial agreement, in the form of a loan that was signed last Friday between the Ministry of Finance and five commercial banks in Bissau. This loan allows banks to have some liquidity to fund this year's crop and thus, traders and exporters will have access to these loans to buy cashews.
However, the manager of Ocidental African Bank, Mr. Romulo Pires, on behalf of the five banks stated that the government-provided grants will only be disbursed according to some "strict criteria". certain. In particular, traders and exporters have no debt, and their contract of sale and purchase is available, there is a logistics system available ...
For each bank, the government provided them with 3 billion FCFA, and the money would have to be repaid within 9 months at an interest rate of 2%.
Cashews are the main and important source of income for the people and government of this west African nation. 80% of the population depends on cashews.
Cashew crop in Bissau usually takes place from April to October every year. However, due to the 19-year-old Covid pandemic and the curfew until May 11, it has delayed the official opening of this year's crop.
Reference floor price for cashew this year is set at 375 CFA per 1 kg and export tax of raw cashew nuts has been reduced.
According to Commodafrica
