The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana signed MOU with African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) to collaborate on development activities to strengthen SMEs and promote sustainable growth of Ghana’s agriculture sector at AFAP regional office in West Legon, Accra.
The CEO of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Farmer Anthony Morrison, elaborated that the MOU between the Chamber and the AFAP is a strategic partnership to advance more technical institutions that are looking up to liberalize and especially make Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership more tentative to farmers and the value chain players.
Speaking to Agric Today Media, Farmer Morrison noted that the MOU would enhance smooth private-public partnership in the sector. ‘The MOU would provide a strong platform for the private sector to have a strong relationship with the public sector to make collaboration with the governments,’ he said.
Jason A. Scarpone, the president, and CEO of African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) uttered that the primary focus of the MOU is to leverage trade finance for the members. However, the partnership seeks to strengthen small-medium producers and hardness the power in the private sector in delivering products and open up markets for smallholder farmers.
The partnership would align most of the sub-regional support systems in that, AFAP is a continental organization that would give the leverage of market entry point and financial support for its members.
The Country Project Manager (AFAP), Aisha Mohammed, added that AFAP in Partnership with the Chamber would embark on capacity needs assessment for the members to find out exact needs in terms of profiling. According to her, the investment would be in the form of technical support and credit guarantee from other investors since AFAP has that leverage to guarantee for the Chamber of Agribusiness members.
AFAP is an independent non-profit organization founded on the work of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a framework for achieving ambitious agriculture development goals set in place by African nations and leaders. AFAP’s vision is to be an active catalyst of agricultural productivity with smallholder farmers, governments, regional economic communities, and SMEs for a prosperous Africa.