Dailynation Newspaper reports that scores of farmers in Northern and Muchinga provinces have been left dry after Neria’s Investments failed to deliver fertiliser despite being fully paid by Government.
According to Daily Nation investigations, the company has no stock in its depots or warehouses.
In addition, transporters have also not been paid and are equally pushing to have their money.
One of the transporters, Mr Dickson Banda, said the government should probe what was going on at Neria’s because a lot of people would be affected.
Mr Banda complained that it was unfair that they have not been paid for the fertiliser that they already delivered.
“We understand there is nothing to move for now, but we should have been paid for the fertiliser which we transported. This is a very serious issue which is affecting our companies because workers are complaining because they have not been paid as well,” Mr Banda said.
He said he did not understand why after promising to pay after a meeting, Neria’s Investments decided to go quiet.
He challenged the minister to demand to see the sheds and he won’t find any fertiliser there.
At the time of going to press, farmers in Northern, Muchinga, Eastern and Central provinces had not received their Urea or top dressing fertiliser from Neria’s, who have remained mute over the matter.
When contacted for the company’s position on the matter, Neria’s General Manager, Martin Chaikatisha, referred all queries to the company directors.
According to PACRA records, the directors of Neria’s Investment are Mr Bokani Soko and Mr Zuneid Yousuf.
When contacted for a clarification, Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary Green Mbuzi said he was at a loss because the person he had been dealing with, Mr Soko, had stopped picking his calls.
Attempts to get a comment from Mr Soko and the other director, failed as phone calls went unanswered. Whatsapp messages show that messges were delivered and read but no reply.
Some farmers complained that it has become apparent that Neria’s Investments has failed to meets its contractual obligations. The farmers have asked Government to intervene before the farming season window closes.
However, when contacted for a comment on the policy direction in this matter since farmers are desperately in need of fertiliser, Agriculture minister, Mtolo Phiri, said the best people to ask were Neria’s Investment themselves.
When President Hakainde Hichilema took office, he disclosed that some fertiliser suppliers had been paid for fertiliser which was not supplied.
Last week, farmers in Nakonde protested at the continued delay in supplying them with inputs.
They complained that the situation could affect the yield for this year’s farming season.
The farmers have called on the government to take disciplinary action against agriculture officers whom they accuse of having failed to do their work and taking them for granted for too long.
But the acting District Agriculture Coordinating Officer (DACO), Mr Jimmy Phiri attributed the delay to the erratic supply of fertiliser by the supplier, Neria’s Investment as he denied accusations of taking farmers for granted.
About 20 cooperatives in the district have not received Urea and are anxious that the delay would affect production because the crops are past the stage at which top dressing is applied for a good yield.
Mr Phiri admitted that that most farmers in the district have not received urea fertiliser because the supplier has been slow.
Mr. Phiri said it was not possible that the officers could ask for a bribe because they are not present when the farmers redeem fertiliser from the supplier but only come in to attend to complaints regarding its quality among others.
The same bikini soko involved in the supply of fire tenders at 5 times the cost? This is now the right time to start investigations against this man including how he was even awarded to supply the fertilizer, by whom and at what price.
Waiting for Bally to say “aikona man”.
Wrong in every sense of the word. When you have been fully paid, yet fail to deliver on time as agreed – thereby thwarting honest diligent business; you have breached the contract, and deserve to be arrested & charged for theft by deception. On conviction, your property/s must be confiscated to pay back what you took by deception! It’s the only way to deter criminals who think they can steal their way to wealth! Innocent people have suffered too much at the hands of racketeers – a line has to be drawn! Jail terms alone, are not enough.
#plant a tree please!
Typical of our people. We complain when business is given to foreigners, but when given a chance we fail to full fill our responsibility. There was a time when to get business with government one must have enough capital in a bank.
Sad
But ba PF told us that they had delivered all the fertilizer across the whole country before the elections and this was one of their campaign songs. Anyway, m not surprised because that was a group of corrupt liars
#6 Ba Miti please stop telling lies…. the distribution of fertilizer was started late October 2022. PF may have been demons but please don’t create stories that are true. Lies won’t solve this problem.
Kikiki ati “ikona man”.
But is there anyone you can go to arrest Bikini Solo and come back poor?
This company is owned by Bokani Soko.
#7 Deja Vu, I know you are many a time an articulate analytical contributor but you always spoil it all by trying to defend the pf even when clearly there’s a point at which they may have errored. HH clearly said that there were companies paid for the supply of fertilizer but hadn’t delivered hence the story today of Neria Investments. During the campaigns pf, were never shy to boast of having paid the fertilizer suppliers to indicate responsibility but the fertilizer so talked about was never delivered. So Mr. Miti is not totally wrong in this context as you seem to want to disqualify his statement based on commencement date of flag off.
Nostra … – You can never arrest him he creates all these companies and has all these Indians and Pakistani Zambians on the boards …he founded Neria Investments and later Grand View International profited massively in fertilizers business to become one of the largest importers of fertilizers in Zambia as well as for the GRZ….all through inflated prices and corruption with the Lazy Lungu regime.
Deja Vu – Why are you pretend as if you just heard this company today …stop playing dumb with your rhertoric,.. these are not genuine companies created through hard work by an honest Zambian business person…these are tenderpreneuers created in the corrupt PF regime. Yes I said because you can’t say it .
Deja Vu – These are long term contracts some of them …these are companies with zero upfront capital the just wait for full payment and go shopping for cheap fertilzer on the market.
Look at the ugly bab00n tarino trying to defend his fellow tribal monkeys after being caught pants down. Giving contracts to upnd cadres. What do you expect. New dawn haha
These contracts were not meant to deliver fertiliser. These contracts were designed to fund the PF campaigns hence the full advance payments. Problem is that PF lost so Neria cannot get their money back. These farmers will never receive the fertiliser from this company.
Arrest Neria directors and have them prosecuted for fraud and pilfering
Zuneid Yousuf – Chairperson and Director
Surender Sreevaru – Managing Director
Nadeem Yousuf – Managing Director
Bokani Soko – Director
Sometimes in September/October 2021 an audit was conducted by the new down government of the fertiliser stock in sheds across the country, The audit I am sure found fertiliser stocks in those depots in Northern province, The UPND government then contracted a company to supply fertiliser to Southern province and due to time constraints the company had to source the fertiliser from local suppliers. Lets use our heads, where did the fertiliser which was supplied to Southern province come from?
But HH told this in his first days in office and you guys disagreed instd you accused a UPND minister. And Karma also , the pf sidelined other provinces now today those sidelined provinces all have fully received their fertilizer accept for the pf chosen regions. Hahahahhaha
#11, 12 Tarino Orange. You always spoil your good argument with preconceived counters. Whether this guy has been around long term or not is not what I was talking about. #6 Miti is telling a lie, that is my contention… I am a keen follower of fertilizer distribution and know exactly when it’s normally distributed…. never did anyone announce that the stuff was distributed earlier than August 2022. Telling lies even on your enemy just brings your dignity lower. Say the truth whether it’s your friend or enemies.. IT’S THE TRUTH. We may just end up a nation of fiction believers.
#18 Funny how same person here is defending Tayali in another story?
#10 The Vulture -During the campaigns pf, were never shy to boast of having paid the fertilizer suppliers to indicate responsibility but the fertilizer so talked about was never delivered. So Mr. Miti is not totally wrong in this context as you seem to want to disqualify his statement based on commencement date of flag off. THANKS FOR YOUR POST. YOU HAVE SAID THE PF BOASTED OF PAYMENT…IN SHORT THE GUY WAS PAID BUT FAILED TO DELIVER… THAT IS WHAT WE MUST CONCERN OURSELVES… FAILURE TO DELIVER MEANS MONEY PAID MUST BE RECOVERD. On me defending the PF, in my life I don’t want to despise anyone even when they are right whether I like them or not… example someone wants to tell me that the Chingola Kitwe dual carriage doesn’t exist, do I support that just because the PF were villains?…
#18 Mwine Munzi…
It’s a question of trying to protect ones party from blame. As far as PF cadres were concerned Lungu and PF were always right. Same with the Upnd supporters….no one reads between the lines… this report is from Daily Nation a known sympathizer of the PF…. read between the lines….. indeed where did that fertilizer go?