| FROM COLONIAL AGENCY TO NATIONAL INSTITUTION |
The Agricultural Development Bank – “ADB” (as we know it today) has had its roots firmly entrenched in the annals of the history of Trinidad and Tobago. The Bank’s history dates back to the 1800s when the “Agricultural Bank" was established as a mortgage lending institution in the wake of a disastrous hurricane. Its immediate objective was to assist plantation owners to replant their estates. Thereafter it continued to operate on a small scale due to restricted legislation and limited financial resources.
During the depression years of the early 1940s, at a time when the major thrust of the agricultural sector was export, prices fell drastically. This coincided with the devastation of much of the standing seedling cocoa by witchbroom disease. This double disaster resulted in many of the plantation owners going into bankruptcy and several properties were transferred to the Government through the Agricultural Bank. |
| THE BIRTH OF THE AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BANK |
In 1945, one of the many West Indies Royal Commission Reports suggested that credit be extended for purchase of land and to the Agricultural Credit Societies. This marked the birth of the Agricultural Credit Bank. The Agricultural Credit Bank however suffered from the same financial legislative constraints as its predecessor.
History repeated itself in 1963 with hurricane “Flora” which wreaked havoc on the Agricultural sector in Trinidad and Tobago. Following this catastrophe, the first branch of the Agricultural Credit Bank was established in Tobago to administer credit on the advice of a reconstructed committee set up by Government. |
| RESTRUCTURING LEADS TO NEW AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BANK |
In 1965, a Finance Institution Committee was set up and charged with the responsibility of preparing a design for the Agricultural Credit Bank. Based on this committee’s recommendations, the Agricultural Development Bank Act of 1968 was drafted.
The statute was enacted on 25th January 1968 and assets and liabilities of the Agricultural Credit Bank were transferred to the Agricultural Development Bank. The Bank was mandated to encourage and foster the development of agriculture, commercial fishing and industries connected therewith and to mobilize funds for the purpose of such development. |
| LEADERSHIP |
| The Bank’s first Board was appointed in May 1970 under the chairmanship of George Jarvis Fuller. In 1977, Frank Thompson became the first appointed General Manager. There have since been other General Managers: Roy Phillips, Albert Vincent, Terence O’Neil Lewis, S.W.K. Knott (as Chairman), followed by Chief Executive Officer – Patrick Musaib-Ali and Hubert Alleyne as Chairman. Today, the Bank’s operation is led by Jacqueline Rawlins, its first female Chief Executive Officer and a Board of Directors that is chaired by Noel Garcia.
|
| BRANCH NETWORK EVOLUTION |
The Agricultural Development Bank started its operations at 12 Abercromby Street, Port of Spain with a staff of approximately twenty (20) persons including three (3) Technical Officers. In 1971, the Bank moved to larger rented offices at 86 Duke Street, Port of Spain.
With its first branch in Tobago, the Bank subsequently established branches in the southern borough and in Sangre Grande in 1969. These branches served the southern and eastern areas of Trinidad respectively, while the northern and central areas were serviced by the North West Branch which was located at the Head Office. Offices were later established in South East Trinidad to serve the Nariva/Mayaro counties and in county Caroni to serve that county. |
| ADB – A DRIVING FORCE |
| In 1989, the Bank acquired a new Head Office at 87 Henry Street, Port of Spain. From its humble beginnings at12 Abercromby Street with a loan portfolio of five million dollars ($5M) and a staff of twenty (20) to its spacious four-storey Head Office building at Henry Street, with a staff of over one hundred and a loan portfolio of approximately $439 million dollars, the Agricultural Development Bank has truly come of age. It has developed from an agency of colonial administration into a truly national institution providing the major source of funding for the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors in Trinidad and Tobago. It has blossomed into a very important financial institution with a major role to play in the growth of the national economy. It has found its place in national development with other national institutions, to transform the face of the land and the life of our people.
|
