admin
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
GRAIN Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has reaffirmed its commitment to continue funding various infrastructural development projects being undertaken by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
GMAZ president Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said the association was obliged to fund the rehabilitation of the State-owned commodity trading enterprise as its strategic supplier of cereals.
“We remain ready to work with Government on the silo rehabilitation, more than ready, it’s for our benefit as millers,” he said.
Mr Musarara further reiterated that GMAZ extended $9 million to GMB towards the rehabilitation of the country’s 12 silos.
“It is uncontroverted that we supported GMB. We had an agreement with the previous Minister of Finance (Patrick Chinamasa). We provided $9 million and we have been repaid our money and we are still keen to proceed,” he said.
GMB chief executive officer Mr Rockie Mutenha told a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands and Agriculture recently that refurbishment work on the first 10 concrete silos was completed in October 2018 while that for steel silos in Chiweshe and Mukwichi were completed in April this year.
Mr Musarara, however, said there was still a need to construct new silos as the existing ones were derelict.
“The technology that GMB has on their silos is antiquated and like many other African countries there is a need to rebuild some. Of course, the key thing to do at the moment is to renovate what is there so that while the rebuilding of new technology silos is happening we will still have storage space,” he said.
The country’s 12 silos have a storage capacity of about 500 000 tonnes.
Last year the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement mooted plans to build 76 new grain silos across the country to cater for an anticipated increase in grain production.
The current capacity also needs to be improved in line with a growing population, which the last census in 2012 put at around 13 million, from the seven million in the 1982 census.
Online Reporter