PAC advises Govt to kick start rolling out of e-voucher systems
THE Parliamentary Committee on agriculture, land and natural resources has advised government to start preparing for the 2018 2019 farming season now to avoid the hiccups that characterized the implementation of the e-voucher system last farming season.
Committee chairperson, Maxus Ng’onga in an interview said government should start rolling out the e-voucher systems early in order for the farmers to be redeeming their input on time. Mr Ng’onga said the hiccups that characterized e-voucher system can be avoided if government start releasing the money to the banks now so that farmers can start activating their cards on time. “The e-voucher system is a very good programme, however, the implementation part of it faces challenges because it start very late, “First and foremost as a committee, our recommendation is to ensure that the ministry of finance releases the funds for the implementation of the e-voucher system very early preferably in the first Quarter of the year- anywhere between March and April the funds for the e-voucher must be available,” Mr Ng’onga said. He said government should also consider engaging more banks on quick depositing of funds into the farmers’ accounts. Various stakeholders have raised concerns on the implementation of the e-voucher system which has been on pilot for over 3 years, saying the programme is besieged with numerous challenges which if not addressed urgently, can lead to food shortages in the country. According to stakeholders, among the bottlenecks faced the implementation of the e-voucher system include delayed distribution and activation of beneficiaries¶ cards, delayed depositing of funds by farmers and non-collection of cards by some farmers.