Pride Mzarabani
HARARE – NMB Holdings has secured US$15 million in fresh capital to support Zimbabwe’s 2025/2026 agriculture season, reinforcing its position as one of the most active financial institutions in the sector.
The funding raised through a privately placed bond and taken up by a European global financial institution will be deployed across smallholder, medium-scale and commercial farmers. Over the past few years, the bank has channelled more than US$50 million into agriculture.
Speaking at the launch of the 2025–2026 summer agriculture season, Erasmus Bhunu, Head of Business Banking, said the new fund is already available and forms part of a broader, long-term financing strategy anchored on partnerships, digitalisation and diversified lending models.
“We raised US$15 million, which is purely targeted towards the 2026 agriculture season. And that finance is readily available,” Bhunu said. He added that the bank is in the final stages of securing an additional US$20 million climate adaptation facility from European development financiers, expected to be deployed next season.
Bhunu revealed that agriculture has become NMB’s largest portfolio despite the bank having had minimal involvement only three years ago. It now stands among the institution’s most successful lending categories, with non-performing loans “almost close to zero,” a rare performance metric in Zimbabwe’s credit market.
He attributed this growth to deliberate partnerships, improved access to farmers via digital platforms, and expanding use of alternative collateral mechanisms.
The bank is now 91% digitised in how it interacts with farmers, allowing producers across the country to access financial services more efficiently.
Despite agriculture’s critical role in Zimbabwe’s GDP and employment, the country still faces major financing gaps. Year after year, producers struggle to access adequate capital and inputs due to infrastructure weaknesses, fragmented support systems, and overreliance on rainfall.
Bhunu said traditional collateral-based lending remains a major barrier to broadening access to agricultural finance. He added that the conventional lending model, which places heavy emphasis on immovable property, must be reimagined if Zimbabwe is to expand productivity and strengthen food security. To address this, NMB is leveraging the Reserve Bank’s Collateral Registry, building partial guarantee schemes with European partners, adopting group-based lending arrangements, and collaborating with insurers to develop credit-guarantee products for farmers without immovable assets. These innovations, he said, are central to making funding more accessible to all segments of the agricultural sector.
Bhunu noted the importance of value chains in unlocking capital and reducing risk. Effective agricultural financing, he said, depends not only on money but on coordinated relationships among input suppliers, offtakers, insurers, financiers, and government institutions. Most farmers, he noted, do not fail because they lack cash, but because the support ecosystem around them is fragmented. By aligning finance models with value chains in horticulture, tobacco, livestock, and other crop portfolios, NMB is working to create sustainable pathways that guarantee markets, inputs, and risk protection for farmers.
