AfDB, African Fertilizer, Agribusiness sign $5.4m MoU for Nigeria, Tanzania markets

&NewLine;<p>The African Development Bank&comma; AfDB&comma; &nbsp&semi;African Fertilizer and Agribusiness&NewLine;Partnership &lpar;AFAP&rpar; have signed two grant agreements to implement trade credit&NewLine;guarantees worth &dollar;5&period;4 million to support fertilizer value chains in Nigeria and&NewLine;Tanzania&comma; potentially benefitting hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;A statement from Apo Group&comma; made available to OpenLife states that the&NewLine;organizations held a signing ceremony at the African Green Revolution Forum in&NewLine;Accra&comma; Ghana on 5 September 2019&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;Dr&period; Jennifer Blanke&comma; African Development Bank Vice President for Agriculture&comma;&NewLine;Human and Social Development said the agreements would provide the inputs&NewLine;needed for Africa to have &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the productivity that we hope for&period;”<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are just thrilled to be getting together with our partners in order to&NewLine;expand the efforts to make sure that we are financing the development of&NewLine;manufacturing and blending of fertilizer&comma;” Blanke said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is an African&NewLine;effort&comma; led by Africans&comma; for Africa&comma;” she added&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;The grants are designed by the Bank’s Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism&NewLine;&lpar;AFFM&rpar; to provide sustainable financing solutions to boost the fertilizer value&NewLine;chain in Africa&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership CEO Jason Scarpone signed the&NewLine;agreements on behalf of the continental body&comma; emphasizing the importance of&NewLine;value chain financing &&num;8211&semi; bringing fertilizer financing from manufacturer&comma; to&NewLine;distributor&comma; to retailer to farmer&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Few succeed in doing it&period; This project will&NewLine;be successful&comma;” Scarpone told reporters&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;The two deals are the first agreements signed by AFFM&comma; which is hosted by the&NewLine;African Development Bank&comma; since it was became fully functional last year&semi;they&NewLine;pave the way for the first implementation of trade credit guarantee projects&NewLine;for fertilizer financing led by AFFM in Nigeria and Tanzania&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;The African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership will be the implementing&NewLine;partner operating in the two countries on behalf of the Africa Fertilizer&NewLine;Financing Mechanism&period; The Partnership has substantial experience in supporting&NewLine;the agricultural value chain across the continent&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;Scheduled for implementation over a two-year period&comma; the projects will lead to&NewLine;the enhancement of fertilizer value chains in the two countries and will target&NewLine;10 importers&comma; 5 blenders&sol;manufacturers&comma; and 37 hub agro-dealers as direct&NewLine;beneficiaries&comma; 520 retail agro-dealers as indirect beneficiaries and 700&comma;000&NewLine;smallholder farmers as final beneficiaries&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;By supporting the fertilizer value chain in the two countries&comma; the projects&NewLine;will go a long way to making fertilizer available to more farmers&comma; a key&NewLine;objective of the Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy&period;<br>&NewLine;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have expected results that are realistic&period; We are here to make sure this&NewLine;happens&comma;” AFFM Coordinator Marie Claire Kalihangabo said at the signing&NewLine;ceremony&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;