Accra, Feb. 16, GNA – AfricaFertilizer, premier source of fertilizer statistics and information in Africa, its donor, and technical partners, have announced the commencement of the 2024 Fertilizer Technical Working Group (FTWG) meetings to be held with key national fertilizer supply chain stakeholders across 18 countries in Africa.
FTWGs are set up primarily for industry players to collate, analyze, and validate country-level fertilizer statistics to support data-driven decisions that promote food systems across Africa.
In each country, fertilizer value chain actors would be brought together to share, collate, analyze, and validate 2023 national fertilizer statistics and other critical information, which will be widely disseminated to guide business and policy decision-making at all levels.
That of Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Togo is slated for March while Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal will be held in April, a statement from the International Fertilizer Development Center, the host of AfricaFertilizer copied to the Ghana News Agency has said.
It said, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Zambia would have their turn in May, while Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda meeting would be held in June with Nigeria’s meeting in November.
The statement said access to high-quality, accurate, reliable, and timely fertilizer statistics and information was required in policy and business decision-making.
“Many industry actors unfortunately lack adequate fertilizer statistical information in the form, and at the time that meets their needs. This is where AfricaFertilizer’s FTWG activities come in to fill the gap,” it said.
The statement quoted Mr Sebastian Nduva, the AfricaFertilizer Lead, as saying, “Through the FTWG meetings and other platforms and tools, AfricaFertilizer has been working collaboratively with partners, including Development Gateway, the International Fertilizer Association, and the West African Fertilizer Association (WAFA), to illuminate fertilizer markets in several African countries.”
He noted that AfricaFertilizer was poised to cover more geographical areas to provide the tools industry actors need for their strategic planning to drive food systems in Africa.
To arrive at unbiased and acceptable fertilizer datasets on imports, exports, and apparent consumption, AfricaFertilizer convenes public sector stakeholders in the value chain to actively participate in reviewing, and validating the country’s fertilizer data to ensure that AfricaFertilizer could provide high-quality statistics.
With funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AfricaFertilizer has partnered with Development Gateway since 2021, through the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) programme, to develop and deploy dashboards for Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia.
The eighth dashboard will be launched this year for Mozambique. These dashboards allow industry players to easily visualize the FTWG-validated statistics at no cost.
Mr Ousmane Kone, VIFAA Program Manager at Development Gateway said, “Access to trustworthy, important data will revolutionize the fertilizer industry in sub-Saharan Africa, enhancing the quality of business and policy decision-making and promoting the agricultural industry and the food systems on a large scale.”
Dr Innocent Okuku, Executive Secretary of WAFA commended the valuable and high-quality data that FTWG meetings generate every year and said without such credible data, it would be difficult for businesses to plan and identify opportunities to import enough products for supply in the marketplace.
In 2023, AfricaFertilizer held FTWG meetings for 17 countries across Africa, and successfully validated 2022 fertilizer data with national stakeholders. The results and outcomes were disseminated widely to guide investments, policy direction, and business decision-making.
AfricaFertilizer aims to enhance its services by securing more funding and fostering collaborative partnerships. The objective is to offer comprehensive data and real-time information on the fertilizer sector throughout Africa. This initiative seeks to address existing data gaps hindering industry efforts and unlock the agricultural potential across the continent.
GNA