KENYA – The National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB), a state corporation whose mandate includes procuring and managing the Country’s Strategic Food Reserve (SFR), has been accorded the International Organization for Standardization, ISO 9001:2015, certification, as a corroboration of the quality of their products and services to consumer.
The ISO 9001:2015 which is a Quality Management System standard helps ensure that consumers get reliable, desired quality goods and services.
NCPB Managing Director, Joseph Kimote, said the Board has come a long way and with the backing of the government, has undertaken various projects and initiatives and managed to record major milestones and achievements in the recent past.
He informed that there is enhanced service delivery, well refurbished infrastructure and a more motivated workforce, whose major drive is focus on results aimed at positioning the Board as a key player in the food sector.
He noted, the ISO 9001:2015, the Board has received will see them uphold the standard and ensure that all the quality objectives are met.
“The new standard ISO 9001:2015 is more robust and provides more benefits to the organization and with one of the key ISO standard’s objectives being to promote efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction.”
In a speech read on his behalf during the launch of NCPB ISO Certification by Principal Secretary (PS), Hamadi Boga, the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS), Peter Munya, italicized the role that the NCPB plays in the implementation of reforms in the national food value chain that were initiated in May 2020
The CS noted that one of the reforms on post-harvest management, contributes towards national food security and therefore NCPB is critical, especially in the enactment and success of the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) in the country.
Munya congratulated NCPB for achieving the Certification under KS: 2657 Standard, saying it was a first step towards raising standards in maintenance of quality in grain management and improving on service delivery.
He enlightened that the Ministry-initiated reforms to address challenges the Board was facing as it discharged its mandate.
“The reforms were institutionalized by the establishment of the National Food Reserves, entrenchment of the Food Balance Sheet Committee and revamping of NCPB’s commercial trading activities.”
He noted that the Ministry has been closely monitoring implementation of the reforms through a Technical Committee which was established, adding that there is notable progress and success in the implementation of the reforms as directed by the Cabinet.
However, he acknowledged that certain critical components of the reforms require inter-ministerial engagement between the Ministry and the National Treasury.
“The strengthening of governance structures and business process re-engineering, we have witnessed at the NCPB, have enabled the organization to perform its mandate with minimal challenges.”
The CS, however, challenged the NCPB Board of Directors and its Management to keep up the momentum by ensuring they maintain high standards, as they drive the reform agenda. The two initiatives, he added, will bear the desired fruits so that they can efficiently serve wananchi and its other stakeholders.
Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) Managing Director, Bernard Njiraini, said the Quality Management System for NCPB is a tool that is going to aid the organization achieve their objectives in terms of advanced performance, better efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.
“As a national standard body, the top most priority is to ensure that we set systems or help organizations set systems to be able to ensure food security and food safety,”
The MD informed that currently NCPB has approximately 712, 000 bags of maize in depots across the country, both in the conventional stores and also in the silos.
Kimote clarified that the maize is clean and free from aflatoxin and available for sale to any miller at any NCPB stores across the country.
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