Govt runs into cash snag over E-vouchers

Fri, 27 Jan 2017 09:48:26 +0000

By Buumba Chimbulu

ABOUT K1.04 billion is required for the Electronic Voucher (E-Voucher) system for the 2016/2017 farming season and the Ministry of Agriculture has only accessed K620 million, contributing to the delays in the issuing of electronic VISA cards, says ministry’s permanent secretary Julius Shawa.

Mr Shawa explained that some farmers in the 39 districts where the system was being piloted had challenges accessing inputs because their cards had not yet been activated.

He was speaking when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Budgetary implications of fuel and electricity subsidies chaired by Mbala Member of Parliament Mwalimu Simfukwe.

He said the ministry hoped that the Ministry of Finance could release the remaining K400 million to enable the cards to be loaded so the farmers could access their inputs.

“We still have a balance of K400 million. I have been pleading with my colleagues at the Ministry of Fiancé to make sure that they release the balance as time is not with us.

“We are hoping that the K400 million will be released so that it goes into loading the cards. We have been talking to agro dealers to allow farmers to access the inputs; some have agreed while other have refused,” he said.

Mr Shawa said late releases of money had remained a challenge in the implementation of the E-voucher system despite the achievement in the piloting of the programme.

He also said the ministry also faced a challenge where it received reports that farmers surrendered non-activated E-voucher cards to agro dealers to access inputs in advance. Mr Shawa explained that this led to some farmers losing out as some agro dealers redeemed the cards in the absence of the farmers. “Government has scaled up the E-voucher programme to 39 districts, extending to all provinces during the 2016/2017 agricultural season, targeting a total of 602,521 farmers,” he said.