President William Ruto has directed the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) to establish a digital payment system for tea farmers within the next three months.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Rono announced the order during an engagement with tea farmers at Chelal Tea Factory in Kericho County on Saturday, August 22.

“The President has said that within the next three months, KTDA should put in place what is called a digital green-leaf payment system, an online system to bring transparency to the payment of farmers from the auction, to the buyer, to the factory, and finally to the farmers’ pockets,” he said.

He said the system is intended to simplify how farmers receive proceeds from green-leaf sales and reduce deductions linked to multiple payment stages, which have raised concerns over take-home earnings.

📌 What You Need to Know

The PS explained that tea payments currently pass through several banks and channels between the auction, buyers, KTDA, and factories before reaching farmers.

“Instead of coming directly to factories so that directors can pay farmers and pay other deductions for KTDA, those payments go to another bank and then back to KTDA, then goes to the factory for only viewing, then back to KTDA to change to dollars, then to the bank to be channeled to the factory,” he outlined.

He argued that the lengthy process creates unnecessary costs and reduces transparency around the money earned by tea growers .

“That long journey is just farmers’ money being taken by people who have not done the work,” he added.

Rono said the government wants the digital platform to allow payments to be tracked from the tea auction through buyers and factories to individual farmers.

He said KTDA has agreed to begin advertising the system within a month and have it operational within three months, putting the expected rollout date in November.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke