Statistics
TADB has financed 57 distinct agricultural value chains, ensuring that interventions cover the full spectrum of Tanzania’s agricultural landscape. These value chains span staple crops like maize, rice, and cassava; cash crops such as coffee, cotton, and cashew; and key livestock and fisheries subsectors. This diversified approach reduces reliance on a few commodities and strengthens the resilience of rural economies. It also aligns with the bank’s integrated value chain financing model, which focuses on improving productivity at farm level, reducing post-harvest losses, boosting processing capacity, and expanding market access.
By targeting value chains holistically, TADB ensures that improvements at one stage—such as mechanization or storage—generate ripple effects across the entire system. For example, financing in the dairy value chain is complemented by investment in cold chain infrastructure, feed production, and cooperative strengthening. In fisheries, credit for cage farming is supported by logistics and cold storage facilities to preserve quality. This model ensures that farmers, processors, and traders all benefit from coordinated support, leading to sustainable growth and long-term competitiveness.
Since its inception, TADB has disbursed over TZS 1.13 trillion in agricultural loans, a figure that represents one of the largest dedicated financing commitments to agriculture in Tanzania’s history. These loans have been issued through a mix of direct lending, wholesale lending to partner financial institutions (PFIs), co-financing arrangements, and the Smallholder Credit Guarantee Scheme (SCGS). This blended approach allows the bank to reach both large-scale strategic projects and smaller rural enterprises that may have been excluded by commercial lenders.
The capital has been channelled into diverse purposes, including farm inputs, mechanization, irrigation systems, warehouse construction, agro-processing facilities, and trade financing. By deploying such significant resources into the sector, TADB has not only stimulated immediate production gains but also built the foundation for long-term agricultural modernization. The scale of this lending has contributed to an increase in the share of private sector credit to agriculture, rising from 8.02% in 2015 to 12.3% in 2024, showing a systemic shift in financial sector engagement with agriculture.
Over the past decade, TADB has financed 719 strategic agricultural projects distributed across Tanzania’s regions and clusters. These projects include irrigation schemes, feed mills, processing plants, storage facilities, and transport logistics—each designed to address critical bottlenecks in the value chains they serve. The bank prioritizes projects with transformative potential, where investment can catalyse broader economic and social benefits, including job creation, increased export earnings, and improved food security.
In practical terms, each financed project acts as a local development hub, attracting ancillary services and private investment. For example, a new processing plant can create demand for nearby farmers to increase production, while improved storage facilities can reduce post-harvest losses and stabilize prices. Many of these projects are implemented in partnership with cooperatives, AMCOS, and private agribusinesses, ensuring strong local ownership and sustainability. Through this project portfolio, TADB has not only delivered financial returns but also driven rural transformation.
The Smallholder Credit Guarantee Scheme (SCGS) is one of TADB’s flagship innovations, designed to address the chronic barrier of insufficient collateral that keeps smallholder farmers from accessing formal credit. Since its launch in 2018, SCGS has guaranteed loans worth TZS 447.95 billion, enabling 762,291 farmers and rural microenterprises to access financing. The guarantee covers up to 70% of the loan value, significantly lowering the risk for lending institutions and making them more willing to serve the agricultural sector.
This guarantee mechanism has led to tangible improvements in loan terms for beneficiaries. Participating financial institutions have reduced interest rates, extended repayment periods, and adapted products to suit agricultural cycles. SCGS has also encouraged new lenders—including community banks and microfinance institutions—to enter agricultural lending for the first time. The result is not just increased access to finance but a broader cultural shift within Tanzania’s financial sector, where smallholder agriculture is increasingly viewed as a bankable and commercially viable activity.