Africa-Press – Eswatini. Incoming new National Agriculture Marketing Board, (NAMBoard) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has promised to bring back the organisation’s image and stakeholder confidence.
NAMBoard CEO Bhekizwe Maziya spoke after being announced by the Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza, yesterday during the press conference held at the ministry of agriculture conference room.
Maziya said this appointment would not be a new challenge for him as he had faced similar challenge when he took over his previous assignment, Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF)..
Maziya said that this new journey was very exciting to him as he had a history of working in the agriculture sector. “Farmers are in my heart and for me coming to Nambord is like coming home,” he said.
Maziya also promised to give urgent attention to farmer’s challenges that the board had already given a comprehensive briefing to him on them. “We are already engaging with management to come up with possible quick wins,” he said.
He said that as he was previously working with the youth it would be of main interest to him to also assist in integrating the youth into agribusiness for sustainability of the sector.
He further thanked government and the Nambord board for the opportunity and trust bestowed on him to steer the Nambord ship. “I would like to thank the board for their confidence in me, otherwise someone else could have been given the opportunity,” he said.
Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza, thanked the board for keeping the business of Nambord going during the past six months where they had been without a substantive CEO. “In the same vein, the Ministry is grateful for the stewardship of Dr. Shongwe who was leading the Management team as Acting CEO during this period,” he said.
Goal
Mabuza said the immediate goal that the Ministry expected the board to deliver on without delay was to play an important role to enable development of the agriculture produce markets in the country. He said as a country we still imported more than we exported, so in accordance with our National Agriculture Investment Plan and the national development plan, we need to urgently inject growth in the sector by making the markets work for local producers.
“It is unfortunate that since 1985, our agriculture produce markets are still at infant stage characterised by poor linkages with producers and other actors in the value chains, low value addition and a negative trade balance,” he said.
Mabuza said government had approved the appointment of the New CEO, who would be expected to quickly adapt and ensure that the organization re-orient its services towards assisting and facilitating uptake of local produce into our local and export markets.
“When locally produced agricultural products do not get to the markets, it is a big loss not only to the producer, but the country’s economy is also at a loss. So this should be the thinking at NAMboard that every cabbage produced, and every agricultural product must be worth its value by finding its way to the market,’ Mabuza emphasised. He further stated that in order to achieve its goals NAMboard needed to strengthen partnerships in the agriculture industry as a whole.
“The expectation is that NAMBoard, in close collaboration with the Ministry should facilitate such forums where producers, traders and input suppliers could forge common objectives on what to produce, when, for whom and how much,” he said.
The Minister congratulated Maziya on his appointment and said he was pleased that he was not new in the sector.
He said he hoped that he would get support from the board, the ministry and all agriculture value chain players to lead implementation of strategic interventions that would build the competitiveness of agriculture value chains to produce and supply for both local and export market.
“I am aware of your passion to make agriculture value chains work for all players,” he said.
The mandate of the National Agriculture Marketing Board, is:
– Regulate where appropriate importers and exporters of scheduled
– Agricultural products
– Facilitate in the marketing, processing, storage, transportation,
– Distribution and sale of scheduled agricultural products
– Advice the government in all matters related to the supply and demand of scheduled agricultural products.
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