Capital Markets Authority to license coffee exchange players

The Capital Markets Authority has extended the old coffee regulations that were to be replaced this month. 

CMA says the extension has been necessitated by delays in putting up a Direct Settlement System that is meant to facilitate payments for coffee sales.

Stakeholders in the coffee sector have been grappling with uncertainty over protection of coffee sales, after it emerged that the Capital Markets Authority regulations would not kick in at the start of this month as planned.

The extension was in a move to give stakeholders more time to comply with the new Capital Markets Authority Act.

The Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations, 2020, which were to be effected beginning this month, gives the CMA the mandate to license Coffee Exchange and the coffee brokers. 

Acting Capital Markets Authority Chief Executive, Wyckliffe Shamiah attributes delays in setting up the direct settlement system to process payments to postponement in implementation of the new coffee regulations. 

As such, coffee marketers are required to remit the funds to the cooperative societies as they have been doing under the General Coffee Regulations;.

Under the new coffee regulations, brokers, who will now be an equivalent of the marketing agencies in the previous regulations, are not required to deposit guarantee money with the regulator.