The Africa Fertiliser Financing Mechanism’s (AFFM) Governing Council committed to mobilise funds to implement the AFFM’s Strategic Plan 2022-2028 to support the increased availability and appropriate use of fertiliser on the continent
The AFFM strategic plan 2022-2028 prioritises broadening access to finance through capital investments and policy reforms. Technical assistance will also be provided to boost smallholder farmers' access and appropriate fertiliser use. Council members congratulated the AFFM for successfully delivering trade credit guarantee projects in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Through the end of 2022, trade credit guarantees totaling US$8.8mn provided 5.3 times leverage, enabling the provision of 112,268 tons of fertiliser to 690,896 smallholder farmers in the four countries. To scale up its trade credit guarantee investments, the AFFM has developed a pipeline of projects for implementation in 2023, which will be rolled out in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Moreover, the Council has also endorsed the AFFM annual report for 2022 and the work programme and budget for 2023.
Josefa Sacko, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment and chair of the AFFM Governing Council noted that AFFM had to be strengthened ahead of the 2023 Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit (AFSH), scheduled for June and July 2023 in Dakar, Senegal, to support the implementation of decisions that will emerge from the summit.
“It is no surprise that AFFM has been instrumental in supporting the implementation of the Bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility. I’m proud to say that the bank has mobilised our agriculture expertise to roll out facility programmes in 24 African countries,” said Ben Dunford, African Development Bank (AfDB) vice president for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, while also emphasising that the AFFM was one of the important vehicles for achieving the Bank’s 'Feed Africa Strategy' objectives.
