Zabion de Wee explains John Deere's S.M.A.R.T model, a financing program designed to help small-scale and emerging farmers in Africa access credit. The program combines customized financing with training and bank partnerships to address the challenge of getting loans for agricultural equipment.
Foreign welcome to African farming. My name is Bateebele Murutuane. Today we're going to be discussing the smart model that John Deere offers farmers and we're going to be talking about the access to finance. To discuss this further with us is Zabian from John Deere. Zabian, welcome back.
Thank you.
Zabian. The last time we spoke we spoke about having the right mechanization and why is that important? However, access to finance is a stumbling block for many farmers. Does John Deere have a solution for this?
Yes Davi. What John Deere does is we do tailor made finance. We don't believe in a one size fits all because of where our new emerging farmers are. You can't then expect them to have everything in place. So we go and look at the individual, we look at it, we do a needs assessment and then we help them with products according to that. But we don't do that on our own. We do it via our dealer network and with our commercial banks. So we set up a team that assists the farmer with this whole process. While we do that, we get a team behind the farmer, we make sure that we get the best product for him, we make sure that we get experts to make sure that he don't overspend or underspend, that he can be able to service his loan once in got financed by our partners or by a commercial bank now.
Okay, I'll be honest with you. I'm a small scale farmer. What you just said to me is a bit intimidating. It sounds like there's people who are going to tell me what to do with my money. What guarantee does John Deere have that will help small scale farmers in this regard?
So what John Deere do is while we help you with your finance needs, we actually train you, we actually bring you up to standard of what you need to know when it comes to your cash flow, your income statement and all those things. So it's not, we come there and we give you a product and we say you owe us this much. You understand what you are getting yourself into. So when the dealer comes to you, you understand fully. Okay, we gonna need this and we're gonna need this and this is how I need to understand my repayment on the product that I got access to.
Financing has always been a stumbling block for many farmers for a very long time. Eh?
Yes Tabi, you know that is, it's a sore point in our country and for emerging farmers. Hence John Deere is making it a point to look at solutions to help in this Regard pulling in partners, looking at other avenues of getting the farmers financed because we can't let good farmers fail because of a lack of finance. We have to find ways and part of my job, why John Deere got me on board is to really look deep into getting better solutions for our farmers.
Zebien, thank you so much for your time.
It's a pleasure.
Tabby, keep the conversation going. Go to africanfarming or africanfarming.com and remember, we farm better together.
Feeding a nation requires great responsibility, hard work and dedication. You give your land your all living on faith that what you reap, you will sow. We recognize the hard work it takes to be a farmer in Namibia. We understand the dedication it takes to make your farming operations perform optimally. And we value the generations of hard work that has gone into feeding our nation. That is why we are committed to doing our part in giving back to you. You have built the foundation by working the field and investing in your future. Now the focus is on growth. We are willing to go the extra mile to meet you on your farm to discuss how we can help structure your finances to make your future growth a reality. At John Deere Financial, we make it our mission to support our farmers through the hardships, to be by their side and support their journey to success. Because each farm and farmer is unique, we want to help lessen the pressure on your cash flow by tailoring our financial solutions to suit your individual needs. As your partner, we know that the key to success is trust. Which is why we have dedicated relationship bankers who will help to nurture and grow your farming business through flexible lending periods that are tailored according to your needs and financial capacity. Your instalments will be structured in such a way to ensure that you always receive highly competitive interest rates on your asset finance. Invest in a partnership with John Deere Financial and enjoy finance built for you.
