NEW revelations have emerged over the youth-led agribusiness firm, JATU PLC, whose investors are up in arms over the operation of the company and generated income.
According to Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, a technical team of experts from his ministry has discovered a massive fraud regarding JATU’s operation in the agricultural sector.
Mr Bashe said, JATU, which is listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), was initially designed in a way that people bought shares and the money obtained was invested in the company and investors received dividends.
Bashe said while the concept had no problem, the government was forced to intervene after the embattled firm introduced a second scheme, which caused an outcry from investors.
He elaborated that under the second component the company takes money from an investor with an agreement that it would cultivate a farm for that particular investor and buy the produce at market price and pay back the money with profit to the investor.
Mr Bashe noted that over 1000 farmers gave their money to JATU PLC so that the company could implement farming projects on their behalf.
“Initial statistics indicate that JATU collected between 4bn/- to 9bn/- through this arrangement. We have found that no harvested crops are in their warehouses. We also wanted to know the farms they cultivated on behalf of their investors, we found out that there were no farms,” he stated.
He added: “We also went further to see the money collected and bank records, we didn’t find that claimed collected amount in the account. Where this matter has reached is over and above us (ministry). I have today requested the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to investigate the matter.”
The minister said what saddened him was the fact that the JATU management told him that the harvested crops were in warehouses but the ministry’s technical team did not find crops in the warehouses.
The firm’s shareholders have been raising concerns over uncertainty surrounding the capitals they injected in the company, which implements various projects in the agriculture value chain.
Tanzania’s Diasporas who injected their money in Jatu expressed their fears over their finances amounting to over one billion.
They were mostly concerned that despite the company’s reports highlighting successful agricultural projects and accrued profits, they were not receiving anything from their investments.
