In recent years the bank was plagued by corruption and maladministration involving senior officials, including its sacked CEO Phil Mohlahlane.

Incumbent chief executive Phakamani Hadebe has attributed the bank’s good performance to a commitment to turn things around. Hadebe also praised the board and Treasury for the role it played in achieving this.

However, the CEO was at pains to say that the institution should not be measured by its financials but by the number of people it helps to lift out of poverty.

Elaborating on the financials, Hadebe said the bank had grown its performing book by 54%, or R7.4bn to R21bn.

“We reduced our non-performing loans by R300m which are currently R1.4bn as compared to R1.7bn which we had in the prior financial year,” Hadebe said.

Chief financial officer, Lebogang Serithi, told CitiBusiness the aim was also to increase funding to farmers to ensure that food security is maintained.

He explained that while the bank was merely a financier in the food security chain, farmers incurred operating costs of up to 20%. The Land Bank could provide them with funds at lower rates while ensuring it was still viable for the bank.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the Land Bank had succeeded in developing financial packages more suitable for smaller farmers and the environment in which they operate.

Gordhan said development targets for the year under review had been exceeded.

“Ambitious goals have been set going forward including increasing the development portion of the total loan book to 15% - an increase of about R5bn by 2016.”
 – micel@moneyweb.co.za