Constraints to financing agriculture in Namibia

Abstract

Financial constraints to farmers in Africa have been a long-standing problem, but most of the literature on this topic in Namibia and elsewhere has been descriptive. The aim of this paper is to explain the causes of financing constraints. It does so by focusing on agricultural Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Namibia. The research employs a qualitative research methodology made up of the purposive-judgement sampling and the Noticing, Collecting and Thinking approach in analysing the data. The study shows that there is a lack of collateral and poor loan recovery on the supply-side while on the demand-side, the provision of insufficient capital and bureaucracy are the biggest constraints preventing a number of agricultural SMEs from accessing finance from formal financial institutions. These findings have major implications for the role of the state in financing agriculture in Africa.

Keywords: Agriculture financing; Namibia; Small and Medium Enterprises