Smallholder tea farmers eye Sh 649million dividend boost

By Steve Umidha

Smallholder tea farmers affiliated to KTDA managed factories will this month receive Sh 649 million from their tea factories, being dividends received from KTDA Holdings Ltd and its subsidiaries for the financial year ending 30th June 2019.

This is after tea factories, through resolutions of their directors resolved to pass the dividends received from KTDA holdings directly to the farmers who are the shareholders of the tea factories that own KTDA (H) Ltd.

The pay slips farmers will receive from their respective factory companies will now show the actual dividend payments accrued from the subsidiaries, separate from normal monthly payments for the delivery of tea.

Over the last five years, factory companies have received more than Sh 3.7 billion in dividends from KTDA and its subsidiaries’ business activities, the amounts having been previously consolidated.

Based on the different sectors and regulatory regimes, the various subsidiary companies are governed by different regulatory institutions in the country.

The payment is over and above what farmers earn as monthly or initial payment.

The subsidiaries include KTDA Management Services that deals with management of the tea factory companies in line with the recommendations made by the Tea Industry Taskforce of 2007; KTDA Power which is involved in power generation aimed at reducing the cost of energy for factories; Greenland Fedha which facilitates easy access to credit for farmers, and KETEPA, which is KTDA’s value addition arm that blends and packages tea for local consumption and export among others.