Africa-Press – Tanzania. INDUSTRY and Trade Minister Prof Kitila Mkumbo has directed the Warehouse Receipts Regulatory Board (WRRB) to increase its visibility to the public and stakeholders through strengthening awareness on the board’s roles.
Prof Mkumbo noted that there is minimal understanding over activities of the board, a situation which has attracted many questions over its importance to farmers.
“Visibility is one of the big challenges that the board faces, you must make yourselves more visible to your stakeholders including farmers, businesspeople and the public at large,” the minister told the management of the board on Friday in Dar es Salaam.
He said the public and stakeholders are supposed to be sensitised and be told that “having the WRRB in place was beneficial.” “If we well supervise the board it will benefit farmers. We must collect views from stakeholders for improving the board,” he said.
Prof Mkumbo further challenged the board to consider collecting statistics over the number of warehouses and stored crops countrywide, especially those that preserve commercial food crops so that businesspeople can be informed where to go to find particular crops.
Prior to his directives, Prof Mkumbo inaugurated a new vehicle for the board to conduct field activities in rural areas. The minister also launched the board’s website which is expected to provide information regarding the warehouse receipt system.
Earlier, Board Chairman, Prof Leo Donge, said the board has improved its information and communication technology (ICT) systems to speed up provision of services.
Prof Donge thanked the government for allocating 1.2bn/- for the board for the 2021/22 fiscal year, but asked the government to recruit more staff for the board to enable it operate across the country.
