The Warehouse Receipt System was officially launched in Kenya at National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Kitale store in Trans Nzoia County. The system which has been piloted in several parts of the country, was launched by the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mr. Peter Munya, enabling farmers to store their produce in exchange for a warehouse receipt that can be traded, sold, exchanged or used to source credit and farm inputs.
EAGC in the Daily Nation newspaper, congratulated the WRS Council for launching the system in Kenya.
EAGC has been involved in the WRS in the grain sector in the country since 2008 after grain stakeholders considered WRS as a solution to grain trading and financing problems in the 2nd African Grain Trade Summit (AGTS) held in 2007. The summit paved a way for introduction of WRS in Kenya in 2008.
Since then, EAGCC has piloted the WRS, during which the WRS operations were developed and banks onboarded to provide WRS lending. The System was piloted by 2 Warehouse operators, who are Kenya Members, Lesiolo Grain Handlers in Nakuru – now under Cargill and ETG Kenya.
In 2013, EAGC in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and industry stakeholders, embarked on developing the WRS legislation and spearheaded private sector engagement to improve the Bill up to the eventual enactment of the WRS Act in June 2019. The Council has since been actively involved in developing the WRS Regulations to operationalize the WRS Act.
During the launch, EAGC ED Mr. Masila pointed out that EAGC is represented on the Board of the WRS Council, established in 2020, by Ms. Rose Mutuku, one of its Kenya Members. Mr. Masila also noted that EAGC has been working closely with WRS Council, offering the Council support in development of the ICT system for issuance and management of electronic warehouse receipts, capacity building of staff on WRS essentials, implementation of WRS through field trials, farmer sensitization on the WRS, and support in the development and validation of the WRS operational manual.
However, Mr. Masila noted the need to increase stakeholder awareness on the role of the Council citing a lot of stakeholder ignorance. He further called upon the establishment of a legal framework that is sufficient for all stakeholders, given that banks found the Contract Law to be insufficient. Further, Mr. Masila noted the need to strengthen WRS risk management by bringing on board professional services and the need for suitable storage facilities, commodity standards and competent operators to uphold efficiency and quality services in the system.
Mr. Masila re-iterated EAGC’s commitment to the success of the WRS in Kenya as it is directly aligned to EAGC’s mission of establishing an enabling environment for structured grain trade in Kenya and in the region.
