Lahore, March 19: NRSP Agri Processing Company (NRSP-APCL) and Naymat Collateral Management Company Limited (NCMCL) have collaborated to issue the first Electronic Warehouse Receipt (EWR) against rice and paddy stocks stored at the recently accredited NRSP-APCL facility located at Hafizabad (Punjab).

NCMCL is the first collateral management company incorporated under the Collateral Management Company Regulations issued by SECP in 2019 after an extensive consultative process involving stakeholders. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has already done necessary amendment in the prudential regulations, making EWR an acceptable collateral.

Electronic Warehouse Receipt (EWR), the first-of-its-kind in Pakistan, is a digital instrument which gives financial institutions real time information and access to farmers who have placed their produce in an accredited warehouse, significantly reducing transaction costs and operational risks for the banks. The technology platform of EWR is also integrated with the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), offering access to farmers to a structured secondary market. The EWR regime currently focusses on Paddy, Rice and Maize, whereas the scope will be broadened and scaled further in the near future.

NRSP Agriculture Processing Company Limited is an unlisted Public Limited Company established in 2016 to invest and promote warehousing and agriculture value chain projects with small holding farmers. It is a subsidiary of NRSP with joint investment of Karandaaz Pakistan. The warehousing facility was established under partial funding by Financial Innovation Challenge Fund, managed and run by UK’s Department for International Development & administered by State Bank of Pakistan.

On the issuance of the first electronic warehouse receipt, Dr. Rashid Bajwa, Chairman NRSP APCL and  Abrar Hassan, Chairman Naymat Collateral congratulated the management of both the companies and acknowledged the support and contribution of SECP and SBP for developing regulatory framework. The leadership of both the companies clearly shows that the EWR regime will not only contribute towards financial inclusion of small holder farmers by securitizing commodities, but will also help to eliminate price anomalies that exist in the agricultural value chain and save the small holding farmers from distress sale of commodities. With the EWR regime, the farmers will have another avenue of formal financing available to them, eliminating the hassle of conventional pass book lending.