NFRA to upgrade grain purchasing with new digital system

DODOMA: THE National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) is launching a new digital system to enhance its grain purchasing operations.

The NFRA Director General, Dr Andrew Komba, told reporters that the system will streamline transactions by accelerating the transmission of seller information and simplifying payments.

“The new system will facilitate the rapid and efficient transmission of seller information to the relevant departments, thereby simplifying the payment process,” he said.

He said the new system would improve efficiency by quickly sending seller information to the regional managers and his office for prompt execution and payment authorisation.

“This is essentially the new system we intend to use to provide faster and more efficient services at our service centres,” Dr Komba emphasised.

Currently, NFRA operates 72 purchasing points across eight regions namely Dodoma, Dar es Salaam (Kipawa), Njombe (Makambako), Songwe, Rukwa (Sumbawanga), Manyara (Babati), Shinyanga and Songea.

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Dr Komba further noted that the agency was also planning to increase the number of purchasing points in deliberate effort to provide better and efficient services to farmers or clients.

“Our current goal is to have around 100 purchasing points countrywide and expand ourselves as much as possible to meet the growing demand of our services,” NFRA boss explained.

Expounding further, Mr Komba said the NFRA follows a three-tier purchasing system.

The first tier involves buying produce from small-scale farmers who bring their maize, rice, or millet to the regional points.

“The produce is inspected for quality and sellers are paid within 5 to 14 days as per government procedures,” he said.

The second tier involves purchasing grain in quantities of 2,000 tonens or more from large-scale traders, while the third tier includes buying from cooperative societies where farmers aggregate their produce.