Adehyeman Savings and Loans Ltd. (Adehyeman) has signed a partnership agreement with the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) to offer commodity-backed loans to farmers and aggregators under a Warehouse Financing Receipt Scheme.

The agreement seeks to, among other things, create opportunities for smallholder farmers to access credit for their farming activities.

At a short signing ceremony in Accra on Thursday, the Chief Operations Officer, GCX, Mr Robbert Dowuona Owoo, said under the Scheme, agricultural commodities would be used as collateral to secure loans.

He said the farmers would be issued with certificates that would enable them to use their stored farm produce as collateral for loans from Adehyeman worth up to 70 per cent of the value of the commodities in the certified warehouse for a maximum period of six months.

"This agreement means interested farmers can store their commodities as a certified independent warehouse, secure loan and repay after selling the farm produce," he added.

Mr Owoo said GCX's key goal was to link Ghanaian smallholder farmers to diverse agricultural and financial markets to ensure farmers secure competitive prices for their commodities.

The Managing Director of Adehyeman, Mr Joe Emmim, expressed gratitude to the Ghana Commodity Exchange for the opportunity, and said the agreement would allow farmerss to use the receipts to access funds from Adehyeman.

"We are happy to offer this support to farmers in the country because we see the agricultural sector of the economy as key to ensuring food security in the country and for export to generate foreign exchange for the economy. Against this background, we must step in when others deem the sector risky and, therefore, shy away from providing the needed financial support to make the farmers realise their potentials," he added.