Smallholder tea farmers to own direct shareholding in KTDA

Smallholder tea farmers to own direct shareholding in KTDA

• The move follows the resolutions of the KTDA Holdings shareholders, at a Special General Meeting (SGM) held in April.

• Each of the 54 Tea Factory Companies, through their respective portions of their 5 million bonus share issue, assigned their shares to their tea farmers Kenya Tea Development Agency tea taster during the process of tea grading at KTDA. Individual smallholder tea farmers affiliated with the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings PLC (KTDA Holdings PLC) will now own direct shareholding of the company alongside their respective 54 Tea Factory Companies, further cementing their ownership and proprietorship in the organization.

The move follows the resolutions of the KTDA Holdings shareholders, at a Special General Meeting (SGM) held in April this year, to amend the company’s Articles of Association to enable the allotment of the company’s shares to individual farmers under a new category of shareholders known as "Tea Farmers."

Each of the 54 Tea Factory Companies, through their respective portions of their 5 million bonus share issue, assigned their shares to their tea farmers, completing the passage to having the tea farmers become direct owners in KTDA Holdings PLC. The farmers were assigned the shares as ordinary shares, based on the leaf delivery supplied between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020.

KTDA Factories have, in the last two years of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, assigned approximately Kshs. 1.5 billion in dividends to their farmers. The tea farmers will now be direct beneficiaries of dividends from the profits of KTDA Holdings PLC derived from its income and that of its subsidiaries.

The farmers will now collectively own five million ordinary shares, with the Factory Companies where the same tea farmers are shareholders holding 24 million ordinary shares in KTDA Holdings PLC.

Among the new tea farmer category are hundreds of institutions registered as tea farmers and supply leaf to their factories, spread out in all the 12 KTDA zones in 17 counties in the country. The institutions include Catholic Churches, PCEA Churches, AIPCA Churches, AIC Churches, FPFK Churches, AGC Churches, SDA Churches, Secondary Schools, Primary Schools, a Seminary, Mission Hospitals, Self Help Groups, Cooperative Societies, Nyayo Tea Zone Corporation, Prisons Department, University of Kabianga and several companies. These institutions join the 620,000 plus individual tea farmers spread out in the said locations

Amongst the new changes include a seat on the board of KTDA Holdings directly elected by the shareholders at the company’s Annual General Meeting. The […]

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