Smallholder tea farmers affiliated with KTDA-managed factories will this week receive Sh734 million from their tea factories.
This payment is in respect to dividends KTDA Holdings paid its tea factory shareholders for the financial year ending June 30, 2020, from its income earned from its subsidiaries.
The payment is a 7.4 per cent increase from the previous financial year when farmers were paid dividends of Sh683 million.
The money is part of other incomes earned by the tea factory companies and complements earnings from tea sales and interest.
The tea factories through resolutions of their directors assigned the dividend income directly to the farmers who are the shareholders of the tea factories that own KTDA.
This is the second year that dividends are being made as a standalone payment directly to farmers and which reflected in farmers’ payslips.
The generated profits and dividends are enjoyed by the factories and their farmers.
Over the last seven years, factory companies, shareholders of KTDA, have received more than Sh3.8 billion in dividends from KTDA’s subsidiaries’ business activities, the amounts having been previously consolidated and received as income of the factories.
Based on the different sectors and regulatory regimes, the various subsidiary companies are governed by different regulatory institutions in the country.
This dividend payment to farmers in 2021 is over and above what they earn as monthly or initial payment and is bound to give them a significant financial boost, especially now when the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted most socio-economic activities.
