Ecobank calls for wider access and stronger collaboration on agricultural finance

Ecobank’s Regional Head of Commercial and Consumer Banking, Charllote Amanquah, has called for closer cooperation among financial and agricultural institutions to extend support to more businesses across Ghana’s agricultural value chain. According to her, “We need to move to the point of action being put in place, expanding the reach, covering more beneficiaries within the agri-value chain,” she said. Ms Amanquah mentioned this on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, following the Ecobank Joy Business Financial Dialogue held on Tuesday.

She said the discussions had highlighted the need to put proposed solutions into action. READ ALSO: Ecobank deepens support for agriculture with dedicated expertise and training – Charlotte Amanquah Ms Amanquah identified stronger collaboration as another priority. She said commercial banks, development institutions and organisations such as the Ghana Commodity Exchange had roles to play in serving farmers and agribusinesses.

“So we need to avoid siloism or individual efforts, commercial banks, development institutions, institutions like the Ghana Commodity Exchange, all of us coming together and collaborating even better in order to serve the beneficiaries within the agri-sector in Ghana,” she said. She added that the dialogue had shown agricultural businesses needed support beyond financing, including better record keeping, clearer markets for their products and greater awareness of available solutions. For Ms Amanquah, the value of the dialogue would be judged by what followed it.

“The real success of these dialogues comes from how it leads to implementation,” she said. Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, following the Ecobank Joy Business Financial Dialogue held on Tuesday, she said the discussions showed that businesses also needed to be ready to approach lenders. “We saw that there needs to be bankability preparedness, things like record-keeping.” She added that businesses needed to establish “where their products will be sold”.

She said greater awareness of the financing options available to agribusinesses was also necessary, alongside efforts to extend existing interventions to more people across the agricultural value chain. “The solutions and interventions need to reach more beneficiaries beyond what it is touching now,” she said. On green finance, she said its value to farmers and businesses should be assessed through results they could see, including savings on energy and water costs.

Ecobank, she said, aimed to link its green financing to measurable outcomes. Looking ahead, she called for the dialogue’s proposals to be put into practice and for closer cooperation among commercial banks, development institutions and organisations such as the Ghana Commodity Exchange. “We need to avoid siloism or individual efforts,” adding that the institutions should work together “in order to serve the beneficiaries within the agri-sector in Ghana.”