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Millers plead with govt to speed up subsidy payments

News
SMALL to Medium Millers Association of Zimbabwe (SMMAZ) have pleaded with the government to speed the subsidy payments to millers producing and distributing subsidised mealie-meal amid concern that further delays would cripple their operations.

BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

SMALL to Medium Millers Association of Zimbabwe (SMMAZ) have pleaded with the government to speed the subsidy payments to millers producing and distributing subsidised mealie-meal amid concern that further delays would cripple their operations.

SMMAZ was formed recently to cater for the needs of small-scale millers.

Addressing journalists last week, SMMAZ interim chairman, Davis Muhambi said: “We are a young association, but we have made strides through various stakeholder engagements, especially with respect to the government subsidy programme. This comes on the backdrop of a difficult operating environment due to inflationary pressures, currency volatility, and more specific to the sector shortage of grain due to drought in the region.”

“Our appeal as small-to-medium millers is that government should reduce turnaround time on the subsidy payments to millers as they have a direct effect on the working capital needs of millers, lines of credit, interest payments and the ability to remain viable.”

The country is currently facing serious roller meal shortages and government last December introduced a roller meal subsidy programme to keep the prices of the staple food at bay. The shortages have, however, been caused by government’s failure to fund the subsidy programme.

Muhambi said the subsidy programme was of paramount importance as it guarantees food security for vulnerable communities.

“We, however, would like to lament the lack of cohesion that exists between the key ministries responsible for this programme and this is evidenced by mixed messaging on the subsidy programme. In light of this, we propose that there be a monthly round table of all the key stakeholders,” Muhambi said.

“The relevant government ministries, Grain Marketing Board (GMB), millers, retailers, and all the relevant taskforces should gather on the round table. This will ensure that we have a constant information loop that will be taken into account in various decision-making processes to ensure the success of the programme.”

Muhambi said in light of this, they proposed as a stop-gap measure, the payment of all outstanding funds directly to GMB. He appealed to government and the GMB to ensure there was continuity in the grain allocations.

“We also propose that government in consultation with millers come up with a standardised return to help government better manage the process to make administration of allocations and payments better. The current system has millers submitting returns at different dates and in different formats which makes the verification process more tedious and time consuming, leading to the delays we are currently experiencing.”