Mr Anthony Selorm Morrison (right), Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana and Mr Jason Scarpone (middle), President of African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (afap), exchanging the signed Agribusiness document in Accra. With them is Nana Aisha Mohammed (left), Ghana Country Programs Manager of the afap. Picture: GABRIEL AHIABOR

Two organisations sign MoU to boost

Nana Konadu Agyeman Sep - 04 - 2019 , 11:33 3 minutes read

The African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (afap), a South African based non-profit organisation, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) to boost the agribusiness value chain in Ghana.

Under the agreement, the two parties will provide technical and advisory services as well as build the capacity of over 2,000 small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and smallholder farmers to enable them to expand their agribusiness ventures.

Additionally, a $200 million credit facility will be extended to SMEs and farmers in support of their operations and as a measure to attract investors to fund agribusiness set-ups in the country.

Signing

The Chief Executive Officer of afap, Mr Jason A. Scarpone, signed on behalf of the organisation while the General Manager of CAG, Mr Anthony Morrison, appended his signature for his group.

The second edition of the Ghana Agribusiness Excellence and Leadership Awards 2019 was also launched at the ceremony.

The awards, which will come off on November 29, 2019 at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra, will honour the contributions of institutions and individuals who have helped to transform agribusiness value chains in Ghana.

Strengthening SMEs

Addressing the press after the signing ceremony in Accra yesterday, Mr Scarpone expressed his satisfaction with the agreement, saying that it would pave the way for the two parties to work together to strengthen SMEs in agribusiness.

He said the partnership would also harness the power of the private sector and deliver products such as fertilisers and other agriculture inputs as well as open up markets for smallholder farmers.

“We consider access to markets as a major challenge that smallholder farmers in Ghana were facing and we see the chamber as a strategic and important partner in providing farmers with services, finance and opportunities,” he said.

Trade finance

Mr Scarpone said the partnership would focus primarily on ways to leverage various forms of financing to enable improved trading in the agribusiness sector.

“Trade finance is the lifeblood of farming everywhere in the world but in a time like today it has been overly constrained in certain markets.

“If the financial blood is not pumping, you are not building out industries and not growing your economy,” he said, and expressed the hope that the partnership would allow distributers, retailers and farmers alike to gain access to finance in order for them to commercialise their activities.

Strategic partner

For his part, Mr Morrison described the partnership between afap and CAG as strategic and one that would advance more technical cooperation between the two institutions as they work to develop fertilisers and other farm inputs for farmers and players in the agribusiness value chain.

“afap is a strong player on the African continent and having worked with some leading figures in the past, I see the group linking up strategically with the chamber to develop agribusiness in Ghana,” he said.