By Mabuchi Chunga

Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has proposed for a provision to allow it to borrow from international financial institutions.

Admarc’s Chief Executive Officer Felix Jumbe made the call following the presentation of the provisional national budget by the Minister of Finance Felix Mlusu which will allow the corporation to borrow money to help fund its operations.

Jumbe pointed out that this will allow the institution to sort out some of the problems that the current resources provided did not manage to cover.

“Allowing ADMARC to borrow from commercial banks should also extend further to borrow from the international financial institutions and for a longer period of time because that would be a cheaper loan and that can adequately cover up the cost that Admarc needs.”

An agricultural expert Tamani Nkhono Mvula said unless adequate checks and balances are put in place this could lead to more accountability issues.

“I believe that this time around safeguards have been put in place to ensure that ADMARC makes profits from these loans to ensure that they pay back these loans, because it will not make sense to allow ADMARC to be taking loans and not paying them back,” said Mvula.

Currently Admarc is in the process of buying farm produce from farmers.