AfricaFertilizer, in cooperation with its donor and technical partners, announces 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. In each country, fertilizer value chain actors will 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.
Access to high-quality, accurate, reliable, and timely fertilizer statistics and information is required in policy and business decision-making. However, 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.
According to AfricaFertilizer Lead Sebastian Nduva, “Through the FTWG meetings and other platforms and tools, AfricaFertilizer has been working collaboratively with various partners, including Development Gateway, the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), and the West African Fertilizer Association (WAFA), to illuminate fertilizer markets in several African countries. AfricaFertilizer is poised to cover even more geographical area to provide the tools industry actors need for their strategic planning to drive food systems in Africa.”
“The valuable and high-quality data that FTWG meetings generate every year is very commendable. Without such credible data, it would be difficult for businesses, especially members of WAFA, to plan and identify opportunities to import enough products for supply in the marketplace.”
Dr. Innocent Okuku, Executive Secretary of WAFA
To arrive at unbiased and acceptable fertilizer datasets on imports, exports, and apparent consumption, AfricaFertilizer convenes public sector stakeholders, including Ministries of Agriculture, customs, research institutions, and CountrySTAT; private sector stakeholders, including fertilizer blenders, producers, suppliers, importers, and exporters; technical partners; donors; and civil society organizations to actively participate in reviewing and validating the country’s fertilizer data to ensure that AfricaFertilizer can 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) program, to develop and deploy dashboards for seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa: 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.
“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,” noted Ousmane Kone, VIFAA Program Manager at Development Gateway.
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.
Stakeholders across the board have regularly found fertilizer statistics validated by AfricaFertilizer and its partners at FTWG workshops to be highly dependable. They have referenced the data at conferences, in academic works, and at policy decision-making meetings at national and regional levels.
In the coming months, AfricaFertilizer will hold several meetings with stakeholders in several countries, beginning with West Africa, to validate 2023 national statistics. Recommendations, lessons learned, country fertilizer statistics overviews, and country fact sheets will be delivered at the end of each workshop to form the basis for specific interventions by industry players.
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.
Upcoming FTWG Meeting Locations:
March: Nigeria (March 5-6), Ghana (March 14-15), Côte d’Ivoire (March 20-21), Benin, and Togo
April: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal
May: Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Zambia
June: Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda
November: Nigeria NPK Technical Working Group
Please contact info@africafertilizer.org or visit AfricaFertilizer.org for more information and updates.
AfricaFertilizer is the premier source of fertilizer statistics and information in Africa. The initiative is hosted by IFDC and supported by several partners, including the International Fertilizer Association, Argus Media, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through Development Gateway.
