The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) licensed coffee brokers will now be on-boarded by the coffee regulator in Kenya, ending a two-year-long supremacy battle.
The Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) had resisted admission of the five brokers who received regulatory approval by CMA in 2021.
These five brokers are Meru County Coffee Marketing Agency Ltd, United Eastern Kenya Coffee Marketing Company, Kipkelion Brokerage Company Ltd, Mt. Elgon Coffee Marketing Agency and Murang’a County Coffee Dealers Ltd.
“We are going to admit them because we are following what the law says. At the moment we are working on the modalities of admission,” said Daniel Mbithi, NCE chief executive.
CMA issued the first set of licenses to five the brokers on June 28, 2021, in line with the Capital Markets (coffee exchange) Regulations, 2020.
It is a win for CMA following a protracted battle with Mbithi-led NCE after the coffee crop regulator, Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), withdrew the amendments to the Coffee Act.
The Act had conferred the mandate of regulating the beverage on NCE.
Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations 2020, were gazetted in April 2019, giving CMA the mandate to license coffee exchange and brokers.
