NCPB to start buying maize from farmers next month
National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will within a month announce the next phase of buying maize from the farmers for commercial trading.
The decision affirms the government’s stand not to buy maize for strategic reserve which every year has been undertaken following pressure by politicians.
Joseph Kimote, NCPB managing director said the cereals board has started working on specifics at the management level before presenting a full report to the board of directors in the next one month on the maize purchase.
“We are reviewing the situation in terms of resources at our disposal,” he said in a phone interview.
The government under new reforms stopped factoring funds in the national budget to purchase maize from farmers and instead turned NCPB into a commercial entity.
Commercial entity
“Under the new reforms NCPB is now a commercial entity and we buy like any other players in the market.
We have over 700,000 bags of maize in our stores which we bought from the farmers since last year and at the same time have been selling the same to various value chains,” Kimote said.
The organisation early this week launched a five-day Customer Service Week aimed at creating awareness of various products under the Nafaka Foods Brand including maize, rice, beans and green-grams.
“We are ISO 9001: 2015 certified and this Quality Management Standard is customer focused. This is in tandem with our aspiration to offer exemplary customer service,”” Kimote said.
