01.08.2023

Baiterek Holding: affordable loans, business support and agribusiness development

Nurbolat Aidapkelov, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of JSC "NUH "Baiterek", gave an interview on the results of the financing of the agro-industrial complex for the first half of 2023.

 – Nurbolat Sergalievich, tell us about the main results of financing the agro-industrial complex over the past six months.

 – JSC "Agrarian Credit Corporation" (ACC) and JSC "KazAgroFinance" (KAF), which are part of our holding, allocated funds in the amount of 364.5 billion tenge for the financing of the agro-industrial complex in 6 months of 2023, which is 51% more than the first half of 2022 (241.4 billion tenge).

As for the main directions, 140 billion tenge has been allocated to finance spring field and harvesting operations. Loans were received by 3.8 thousand agricultural producers (SHTP) under the plan of 2400 SHTP, including over 1.4 thousand new SHTP (plan 240 SHTP). At the expense of these funds, 3.5 million hectares of agricultural land were sown, which is 75% higher than the planned indicative of 2 million hectares.

In addition, credit partnerships received great support. 3.4 thousand CT participants received funding for 126 billion tenge. This is a significant increase. For comparison, in the first 6 months of last year, only 2.7 thousand CT participants received loans for 79 billion tenge.

Another important task is the renewal of agricultural machinery. For six months, the CAF financed the purchase of 3,777 units of agricultural machinery for 90.6 billion tenge. There is also a significant increase in financing volumes by 43%, if compared with the first half of last year.

In general, there is a positive trend in all the main areas of work of our companies in the field of agriculture. This is despite the fact that, let me remind you, last year was a record for the entire history in terms of lending to the agricultural sector, over 522 billion tenge was allocated to support our farmers.

 – And what kind of support do you provide to small businesses?

 – To begin with, it should be noted that 97% of all funds were received by entrepreneurs belonging to the category of small and medium-sized businesses. The average portrait of our borrower is a small peasant farm, often of a family type. Of the 10.6 thousand borrowers who received loans this year, 9.2 thousand are KX/FX and sole proprietors. The average loan size for such borrowers amounted to 17 million tenge.

Especially for small businesses, the ACC has a micro-credit program "Isker", which allows you to get a micro-loan at a rate of 6% per annum. Over 3.1 thousand micro-loans worth 16.5 billion tenge were issued in six months. Last year, for the first 6 months, only 861 micro-loans worth 5.6 billion tenge were issued.

It should be noted here that micro-loans are provided not only for farming, although the main applications, of course, come for this. The purpose of the program is to support employment and entrepreneurship development, mainly in rural areas and small towns. Therefore, many micro-loans are taken to engage in such types of small businesses as opening shops, service stations, hairdressers, cafes and so on. The more different types of businesses in rural areas are supported and jobs are created, the better rural areas will develop in general.

 – What new lending programs have been launched this year?

 – In 2023, the implementation of the youth entrepreneurship support program was launched, where ACC acts as an attorney agent. The program is aimed at young entrepreneurs aged 21 to 35 years and allows you to get a preferential micro-loan of up to 5 million tenge at a rate of 2.5% per annum. These are unprecedented favorable conditions, good support for young entrepreneurs starting their way for the first time.

As an attorney agent, ACC accepts applications, evaluates business projects, and services loans. The decision to issue a loan is made by the competition commissions under the akimats. As of July 1 of this year, ACC reviewed for compliance with the requirements of the program and sent over 3.2 thousand applications for 14.7 billion tenge to the competition commissions for consideration.

 – In agriculture, as you know, there is a high level of wear and tear of agricultural machinery. Will additional measures be taken in this direction?

 – You correctly noted the problems. The average wear of the machine and tractor fleet is about 80%. The rate of renewal of agricultural machinery is growing annually and in 2022 exceeded 4%. But in order to be competitive, we need to strive for global renewal standards of 8-10% annually.

For this purpose, this year the KAF has launched programs of preferential leasing of agricultural machinery and equipment "Own feed", "Made in Kazakhstan" and "Zhasyl Onim" at the expense of its own and budgetary funds. Under these programs, equipment can be purchased at a rate of 6% per annum, with a lease term of up to 10 years and an advance payment of 15%. The program "Preferential leasing" launched last year with a rate of 6% per annum also continues to operate.

Launching preferential leasing programs, we planned to allocate about 57.1 billion tenge for their implementation in 2023. However, the attractive conditions of the programs have led to significant demand from farmers, so now we are working on the issue of additional attraction of 20 billion tenge to finance preferential leasing.

For these programs, I would like to note such a moment. The 6% rate is fixed immediately in the financial leasing agreement. This makes it possible not to resort to subsidizing rates, as under other programs financed by expensive borrowed funds. Thus, by solving the task of providing farmers with modern equipment, we simultaneously contribute to budget savings.