By Bernard Mutambudzi

Agriculture remains the anchor of economic growth and development and Agribank will continue to supporting the sector.

Speaking during the Financial Overview for 2018, Chief Executive Officer for Agribank, Mr Sam Malaba said the bank would expand agriculture financing and development, particularly agriculture value chains.

"Agribank is currently mobilizing foreign lines of credit to support the productive sectors particularly agriculture sector and related value chains from friendly institutions such as IDC SA, Afreximbank,AfDB and PTA banks," he said.

He said Agribank made significant progress on financial inclusion as guided by the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, officially launched by the Minister of Finance in March 2016.

"Agribank is also driving youth and gender mainstreaming to serve women and youths in business, expanding financial inclusion," he said.

He said Agribank was also providing lending facilities across a range of social and environmental segments.

"We granted loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the most economically deprived areas of the country such as Lupane, Filabusi, Jerera, Binga, Kotwa, Checheche etc," he said.

He said the majority of the population in Zimbabwe was unbanked from banking and financial services.

He said through the microfinance unit and banking, the institution was championing financial inclusion strategy with particular focus on rural communities.