Akwandze Agricultural Finance (Pty) Ltd. is a newly established development funding institution that is backed up by a unique partnership between Tsb Sugar and the Liguguletfu Co-operative which was established by Growers to invest in Akwandze.

The two shareholders have extensive knowledge and experience in sugar cane financing and production. Furthermore, Akwandze is a successor organisation to SASA’s Umthombo Agricultural Finance and takes its cue from its predecessor’s experiences and lessons learnt.

The following figure shows the structure of Akwandze. A unique feature is Akwandze’s linkage to grower support services provided by Tsb Sugar, the South African Sugar Research Institute and the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs.

To meet sugarcane growers demand for financial services Akwandze is seeking other partners and organisations to increase its financing capacity.

Akwandze provides the following financial services:

• Sugarcane establishment and replant loans.
• Ratoon management loans.
• Irrigation maintenance loans.
• Electricity loans.
• Irrigation infrastructure loans.

In addition to loans Akwandze provides a savings scheme (crop proceeds retention scheme) whereby growers can save for their forthcoming ratoon management needs.