Cabinet is set to discuss the restructuring process of the financially troubled Agriculture Business Development Agency (AgriBusDev) in the near future, as the country strives to attain food security.
Over the years, AgriBusDev has courted controversy and has been embroiled in various allegations of corruption and mismanagement, which have landed the company in court, for among other challenges, struggling to pay suppliers and its employees’ salaries.
In an interview with Nampa here on Monday, Minister of Public Enterprise Leon Jooste said the restructuring process will be discussed at the next meeting of Cabinet’s Committee on Public Enterprises, without indicating when exactly the meeting will take place.
“No formal decision has been taken yet. Cabinet referred the item to the committee, whereafter it will be resubmitted to Cabinet for formal decision-making purposes,” he noted.
On the same note, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Calle Schlettwein on Monday said the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has called attention to countries’ need to focus on producing their own food and reducing food imports, hence Government through agriculture is focusing on securing food sustainability locally.
Schlettwein explained that the green schemes, which were operated by AgriBusDev, have the potential to make Namibia self-sustaining in food production, particularly in maize, mahangu and wheat, as well as fresh produce.
He noted that the restructuring of AgriBusDev is a call to ensure food security as the agency has failed to run and achieve the capabilities of the green schemes effectively, stressing that the land and infrastructure are available, and therefore the potential is there.
“We can reach self-sufficiency. The target is not far away and we have set our target for in four years. The potential is there through the green schemes; however, it is just how they were managed,” said Schlettwein.
Equally, AgriBusDev Managing Director Berfine Antindi pointed to maladministration as the main reasons for the entity’s ‘colossal failure’.
She noted that AgriBusDev is a non-profitable company at the moment, but said if the schemes are to turn out quality produce, it can provide local markets with sufficient food products to avoid having to rely on imports.
Antindi further indicated that while the public enterprises ministry is in the process of appointing a consultant to restructure it, the agency will continue to manage the 11 green schemes.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
