By Cathy Maulidi:
Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) needs K354 billion for its recapitalisation, its general manager Dan Makata has said.
Addressing members of the Commissions, Statutory Authorities and Enterprise Committee of Parliament Tuesday, he said the corporation needs government funds for the recapitalisation process to go on smoothly.
Makata said Admarc also needs government funding to start buying crops and inputs from farmers again.
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“If you look at Admarc, since it changed from being a company under an Act of Parliament to a limited company, a lot has happened for the past 20-plus years and the things that happened made Admarc to fail to command the market of buying produce and managing issues of value addition.
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“For us to go back into that space, we need financing and that financing can only come in form of capital injection into the business. Yes we can look at loans and other means but, basically, what we need is recapitalisation and our current projections are looking at figures around $300 million (about K354 billion),” Makata said.
He added that Admarc is owing banks a sum of K40 billion, such that borrowing to finance the recapitalisation process would only burden the balance sheet, which is already not clean.
“Going forward, we resourcing ourselves, other than loans, to ensure that we are able to do the functions we, as Admarc, are supposed to do,” he said. are looking at other means of
Makata also told committee members that Admarc is currently not able to pay salaries to its staff on time as the corporation waits for funding from Treasury every month.
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“This has an impact on the new staff as most of them feel betrayed and lose morale due to non-payment of salaries,” he said.
According to Makata, the restructuring of Admarc is also facing a hitch as most of Admarc’s ex-staff are refusing to leave institutional houses as they are waiting for pension and repatriation to their homes.
He said K700 million is required for staff repatriation, with outstanding pension arrears standing at K500 million.
Makata also said, at present, Admarc has no maize stocks but said some of its markets are still open and selling the grain— which is being drawn from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).
“Admarc did not buy maize this year because it was not 100 percent functional and government saw it fit that maize should not be handled by Admarc but NFRA. If you ask me that: ‘Does Admarc have maize in stock?’ I will say “No” but Admarc is able to sell maize when asked to do that because we are currently selling maize which we are drawing from NFRA,” Makata said.
Meanwhile, the Commissions, Statutory Authorities and Enterprise Committee of Parliament Chairperson Binton Kutsaira has advised Admarc to make sure that resources that are channelled to the corporation are prudently used.
“The committee has emphasised much on the prudent use of money because Admarc is crying for recapitalisation but [the question is:] have they put in place measures to ensure the money is used prudently if it is given? So, we, as a committee, want Admarc to put to good use whatever money they are given,” Kutsaira said.
Admarc was allocated K4 billion in the 2023-24 national budget.
