Speeches

THE SPEECH OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE NCPB BOARD OF DIRECTORS DURING THE LAUNCH OF NCPB ISO CERTIFICATION AT THE SAROVA PANAFRIC HOTEL ON 26TH OF AUGUST 2021.
“The Guest of Honour Sir; the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Hon Peter Munya, Chief Administrative Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Ms. Ann Nyaga, The Permanent Secretary Crop Development Prof. Hamadi Boga, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to welcome you to this auspicious occasion, as we celebrate our certification. The NCPB’s attainment of the ISO 9001: 2015 certification is indeed a major milestone in the Board’s commitment towards transformation and focus on turning around its fortunes through improved commercial performance. Please join us as we celebrate this notable achievement.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
By adopting the ISO 9001:2015 standard, NCPB is committing to ensure continuous performance improvement in execution of its mandate and by extension, is confirming its commitment to the Government agenda of enhanced food and nutrition security as well as robust agricultural commodities trade.
The road to attainment of ISO 9001:2015 has been long and challenging. Indeed, achieving this certification has not been an easy task, especially for such a large organization, with many complex functions and processes.
I hereby applaud the NCPB Board, management and staff for taking this bold step to achieve this standard. I note with
satisfaction that the management’s quest for quality and optimal service delivery has earned NCPB this certification and allowed it to benchmark with international best practices. I can say with confidence that NCPB now stands as a benchmark for other Corporations.
As we celebrate this monumental milestone, we commit to serve our customers with dedication by meeting and exceeding their expectations as we endeavor to be leaders in trade and management of agricultural commodities.
Thank you and God bless you.”

MANAGING DIRECTOR’S SPEECH DURING THE LAUNCH OF WAREHOUSE RECEIPT SYSTEM ON 13TH JANUARY 2022 AT NCPB KITALE DEPOT
“The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives,
His Excellency, Governor, Trans Nzoia County
His Excellencies, Members of diplomatic Corps and Development Partners,
The Chairman, Board of Directors, NCPB
Chairperson WRS Council,
The CEO, WRS Council,
The Director General Agriculture and Food Authority,
The CEO, East African Grain Council
CECs of Trans Nzoia,
Senior Government official,
Farmers,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning,
It is with great pleasure to invite you to NCPB Kitale depot for this auspicious occasion as we launch the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS).
Indeed, this revolutionary concept will go a long way in tackling challenges faced by Kenyan farmers face in marketing their produce in the midst of a lack of price transparency, low bargaining power, poor storage leading to high post-harvest losses and low incomes for our hard-working farmers.
The Warehouse Receipt System is envisaged to play a central role in the liberalized grain market by making it more responsive, as well as institutionalizing structured trading in the country with an overall aim of strengthening the commodity supply chain and trading regime. Certainly, this concept will infuse competitiveness in the local and international grain markets.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Besides creating a demand as well as improving and facilitating the sale of commodities when the price is right, the WRS will enable depositors to get access to Cash faster against their Warehouse Receipts.
In a nutshell, the linking of post-harvest credit through Warehouse Receipt Financing to funding for agricultural inputs will address food security concerns through increased agricultural productivity and ultimately meet the Government’s Vision 2030 and Agenda Four goals.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you are aware, the NCPB is undergoing Reforms which were instituted in May 2020 by the Cabinet and launched by the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives. One of the key deliverables of the Reforms was the establishment of the Warehouse Receipt System through which the Government will competitively procure the national food reserves stocks using warehouse receipts.

To actualize the above, the Board is piloting the WRS system concept in collaboration with the WRS Council and has set aside five depot sites to pilot the concept as a warehouse operator and these include Kitale, Eldoret, Meru, Nakuru and Nairobi Grain Silos which have been licensed. The Board intends to increase this number to a total of 10 licensed warehouses in 2021/2022.
The Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) has inspected, Certified and registered 45 stores and one (1) silo complex for WRS operations in accordance with the Standard for Warehouses. The certified facilities are open to farmers, farmer groups and other agriculture value chain actors to deposit their commodities.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Food safety has become an emerging issue in the country in view of the prevalence of contamination of grains with toxins such as aflatoxin, fumonisin and others. Therefore, to support the government efforts in ensuring that Kenyans have access to safe food at all times, the Board has installed aflatoxin testing laboratories at various depots in the Country including Meru, Machakos, Nakuru, Eldoret, Moi’s bridge, Kitale, Bungoma, Migori, Narok and Nairobi.
The Board continues to build capacity of its key staff on Quality Management aspects by collaborating with various national food quality and safety agencies including Pest Management Association of Kenya (PEMAK), Agrochemical Association of Kenya (AAK) and Pest Control Products Board (PCPB).
The Board has also worked with the WRS Council to automate the issuance and transfer of warehouse receipts for transparency and accountability.

In conclusion, I urge other players especially farmers – both large and small scale -, traders and other value chain actors to embrace this concept to increase competitiveness in the marketing of agricultural commodities for the benefit of the producers and consumers as envisaged the Agriculture Sector and Transformation and Growth Strategy of 2009 t0 2019.
Bwana CS, I assure you of the Board’s commitment to ensure the successful establishment of WRS.
Thank You!.”