KTDA Foundation in partnership with The Ford Foundation and Rainforest Alliance among other partners hosted a graduation ceremony for 1837 farmers at the Mataara Tea Factory in Kiambu.
The graduation ceremony saw farmers receive certification for the successful completion of a Financial Literacy training programme which they had been receiving in the last one year.
Speaking at the event, KTDA Foundation Manager, Jaki Mathaga said that the Foundation and its partners felt that it was crucial to empower farmers to manage their income in light varying incomes as a result of fluctuating tea prices.
“It is important for us to ensure that they are well equipped with the knowledge and skills to make wise financial decisions as a means to not only sustain themselves, but also contribute to the growth of the economy.”
In thanking the partners, Mathaga said that the training would not have been possible without funding from Rainforest Alliance and support from Ford Foundation and KTDA Holdings. Gradual scale up of similar training to all 67 KTDA-managed tea factories is expected to commence in 2016.
One of the KTDA Foundation's pillars is “Capacity Enhancement for Economic Empowerment”. Through this pillar the Foundation, partnering with key organizations, aims to empower farmers to manage their incomes in a better way. Some of the topics taught to the farmers included record keeping, budgeting, saving and debt management.
Giving his remarks on the importance of financial training, KTDA Senior Manager, Sustainable Agriculture, Peter Mbadi, noted that financial literacy is a vital skill for farmers to enable them learns how to manage their income well.
“We also recognize that access to financial literacy is one of the key challenges facing farmers in rural Kenya, hence the reason why KTDA Foundation is providing this training to the farmers to enable them to make proactive decisions and learn ways to plan and control household and business finances,” he added.
The Financial training program commenced in November 2014 and ran through to May 2015, reaching 1,837 farmers in 210 sessions of 70 groups in total. The objectives of the training was to provide financial, business as well as management skills trainings with the farmers in order to improve their financial record keeping abilities, and have a full understanding of their business so as to make sound business decisions.
Commenting on the participant’s feedback, Rainforest Alliance Manager, East and Southern Africa, Hosea Machuki, noted that the record keeping concept was highly appreciated and accepted by the farmers. “I am happy to say that majority took positively the training and acknowledged the importance of keeping records.”
The training has equipped farmers with skills to calculate the actual profits accrued from their farming business and therefore gauge how much they can borrow.
“The methodology for the training is unique to the farmers since they are involved throughout the learning process by activities, exercises and participating in contributing to the discussions and actual practice of the records keeping as well as evaluating their own work in keeping records,” he added.