Chandula invited speak at WB agri finance forum in Uganda

HNB Deputy General Manager – Development Banking Chandula Abeywickrema, an expert in microfinance and development banking, has been invited to do the lead presentation on ‘The New Approaches in Reaching Smallholder Farmers’ at the World Bank Agrifin Forum 2012 in Kampala, Uganda.

The Agriculture Finance Support Facility (Agrifin), an initiative supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by the World Bank will have their first Annual Meeting and Financing Agriculture Forum 2012 from 26 to 30 March 2012 in Kampala, Uganda and is co-hosted by the World Bank’s Uganda office and Centenary Bank.

The Financing Agriculture Forum is part of the Agrifin’s effort to promote knowledge exchange and foster partnerships among key stakeholders in agriculture finance.  During the first two days of the Forum, professionals representing a range of financial institutions and development partners will examine and discuss best practices, innovations and challenges in agriculture finance.  

The Keynote presentation of the Forum will be done by Nancy Barry, President, NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.  She will talk on ‘New World of Agriculture and the Opportunities for Finance’.

The opening remarks will be made by Mark Cackler, Manager – Agriculture & Rural Development Department, World Bank, Carlos Cuevas, Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Louis Kasekende, Deputy Governor, Bank of Uganda. Some of the key areas that would be covered in the forum are opportunities and challenges in financing producer cooperatives, new models for lending to emerging commercial farmers, equity finance for small cap agricultural business, advances in transaction, savings and payment services, working capital solutions for agricultural enterprises, investment financing for agricultural enterprises.