By Isaac Salima:
The Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has hired Daniel Makata as its Chief Executive Officer as part of a restructuring process it announced recently.
Last year the institution announced the restructuring exercise that later saw it retrenching all its members of staff.
In a press statement signed by board chairperson Zachary Kasomekera, the state-run grain trader says Makata’s hiring is effective July 1.
“[Mr] Makata brings to Admarc a unique combination of commercial strategy, business innovation, managerial leadership and strategic planning which are skills required to achieve results in the new Admarc Limited,” the statement reads in part.
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Makata replaces Rhino Chiphiko who was relieved of his duties last year.
Makata who has served in senior positions in various companies including TNM Malawi where he was once its Chief Commercial Officer, has a daunting task of reviving Admarc’s operations.
When contacted Monday, Makata said was grateful for being entrusted with the responsibility of spearheading the institution’s growth.
But he said it was ‘too early to comment” on expectations.
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For long, Admarc has been faced with many challenges bordering on inefficiency and mismanagement and has consistently asked the government for a bailout.
Two years ago the parastatal announced a turnaround strategy where, among other things, it wanted to revive its agro-processing and value addition activities.
However, the plans failed to come to fruition as instead the then management was entangled in operations disputes with its board.
The firm has been struggling to repay loans and recently, it was revealed that it owes commercial banks about K47.7 billion.
In September last year, the Ministry of Agriculture suspended Admarc’s operations and sent on leave all employees marking the beginning of the restructuring.
In January Admarc then announced to have retrenched its entire workforce before it advertised some positions
