AFAP LAUNCHES REGIONAL PUBLIC-PRIVATE DIALOGUE SERIES
ON THE FUTURE OF
FERTILIZER AND AGRO-INPUTS IN AFRICA
Dateline: LUSAKA, ZAMBIA Wednesday, 7 December 2022 — Lead: This
document details the launch of of the AFAP Regional Public Private dialogue
series themed ‘The future of fertilizer and agro-inputs in Africa’ which will be
convened in four regions (Sub-Saharan, East, West, and Northern Africa) between
December 2022 and March 2023. The AFAP PPDs are consultations between
government and the private sector to identify and resolve policy and regulatory
constraints to the commercial supply of fertilizer in African countries.
The African Fertilizer and
Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) in partnership
the Alliance for Commodity Trade in
Eastern and Southern Africa
(ACTESA), a Specialised Agency of the with the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (COMESA) have
launched the AFAP Regional Public-Private Dialogue series themed ‘The Future of
Fertilizer and Agro-inputs in Africa’ on 7 - 8 December 2022 at the Radisson
Blu Hotel in Lusaka Zambia.
“The action is part of AFAP’s response
to multiple adverse events including the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in
climate change effects, a slow-down in economic growth, and the Ukraine-Russia
war, that has impacted global supply chains giving rise to fertilizer shortages
and escalated fuel and inflationary food prices. The series will engender
action-orientated and result-focused regional dialogue and deliberations that
will lead to the development of concrete next steps in addressing Africa’s
fertilizer and agro-inputs challenges. These PPDs will also meaningfully
contribute to the crafting of an Action
Plan during the African Union’s June 2023 African Fertilizer and Soil Health
Summit.”, said Michael Sudarkasa, CEO of AFAP.
The conference in Zambia
kicked-off the Sub-Saharan Africa leg of the series, with the remaining conferences
to be convened in Western Africa Accra, Ghana, and Eastern Africa,
Kampala-Uganda in March 2023, and Northern Africa in Cairo-Egypt, in May 2023.
“Taking into consideration that
COMESA consumes less than 4% of the global fertilizer Dr. John Mukuka, ACTESA Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) have stressed the importance of harmonisation of the fertilizer
regulations, standards and policies. This will enhance increased agricultural
staple food productivity through enhanced increased fertilizer production,
reliability, availability to small-holder farmers in a sustained, affordable,
timely and reliable manner. He added that while a lot of progress has been made
in terms of exempting fertilisers from value added tax and import duties,
non-tariff barriers remain a major stumbling block to farmers’ access to
fertilizers in the region. In the
short-term, COMESA Member States should implement smart and targeted subsidy
programmes with efficient distribution mechanisms such as the eVoucher to
enable vulnerable smallholder farmers to access fertilizers.
.
The AFAP Regional PPDs are
consultations between government and the private sector to identify and resolve
policy and regulatory constraints to the commercial supply of fertilizer within
the region. The purpose is for government to gain an understanding of the key
policy, regulatory and business environment constraints affecting private
sector operations, and for the private sector to gain an understanding of
government priorities for the sector, with both players to agree on joint
actions to grow the sector and on a roadmap for the way forward with clear
roles and responsibilities for each party.
“This Regional PPD series
coincides with AFAP’s commemoration of 10 years of service, working with the
fertilizer private sector (importers, blenders, manufacturers, Hub
agro-dealers, and agro-dealers) and the public sector officials responsible for
governing the sector”, said Sandra Pires, Senior Director of Programs at AFAP.
In support of the PPD, AFAP is
also undertaking a needs assessment of the private sector in East, Southern and
West Africa to develop insights on how to support increased domestic private
sector engagement in the fertilizer value chains. The purpose of the needs
assessments will be to capture private sector insights regarding the status of the African
fertilizer markets, particularly under the new strained conditions.
“To validate the findings of the
needs assessment, AFAP has organized these four Regional PPDs to share insights
from the surveys with selected public and private sector stakeholders and to
help refine the private sector messaging that will feed into the 2023 Africa
Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit planning processes and to inform the deliberations
during the Summit. The PPDs will also serve as a means to capture the feedback
and needs conveyed by the African domestic private sector as this constituency
will be critical to the success of implementation plans post Summit”, said Dr.
Maria Wanzala, Director of Policy, AFAP.
At present, the needs assessments in Southern Africa have been carried out for the following countries: Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, and Zimbabwe.
Boilerplate
|
Partnerships – Productivity – Prosperity!
These are the foundational pillars of the philosophy and ethos of the
African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP). Celebrating
its tenth year of service to the African agricultural community, AFAP traces
its roots as an organization to the 2006 Africa Fertilizer Summit held in
Abuja, Nigeria which was organized by an array of partners working to support
the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). The 2006
Summit begat the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizers for an African Green
Revolution. Founded in 2012, as
an independent nonprofit organization by a partnership of African development
organizations, AFAP has since evolved into a dynamic and market leading
social enterprise and service provider to an array of clients and partners
from the continental and international public and private sectors. Primarily focused on
the design and implementation of sustainable developmental projects that
support policy and regulatory reform, capacity development, financial credit
provision and data gather and market intelligence development and
dissemination, AFAP provides market-driven business solutions in agricultural
inputs and agribusiness value chain sectors. AFAP
combines technical expertise, entrepreneurial innovation and a unique,
continental perspective derived from its expansive footprint across the
continent – with offices in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and its headquarters in South Africa. Principally
AFAP supports the development of the African agriculture inputs and
agribusiness value chain by working to build the capacity of the continent’s
hub agro-dealers, agro-dealers and smallholder farmers. Further, AFAP
undertakes initiatives to improve the efficiency and capacity of stakeholders
involved in the inputs and agricultural output market companies, promoting
the use of high quality and affordable balanced crop nutrition products,
partnering with technology and equipment providers, and facilitating trade
finance for fixed assets and inventory via a proprietary Agribusiness
Partnership Contract (APC) mechanism. The
four key areas of activity of AFAP today are: 1.
Agribusiness and Market Development Services 2.
Financial Services 3.
Agri-Inputs and Agribusiness Policy Services
4. Market Intelligence Services |
Selected partners, funders and
clients of AFAP include, but are not limited to: The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa, the International Fertilizer Development Center,
the African Development Bank, the African Union’s Regional Economic Communities
SADC and COMESA, the United States Agency for International Development, OCP,
Yara, the Norwegian government, and the Swedish government.
Story Credit :
COMESA Secretariat
Ben Bella Road, P.O. Box 30051, Lusaka, Zambia
Phone: +260 211 229725/32
Fax: +260 211 225107
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