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West Africa Food Market programme enhances capacity of agribusinesses

Thirty-three stakeholders of the West Africa Food Market (WAFM) programme, comprising grantees and policy influencers in four countries have benefited from a two-day retreat and capacity building workshop organised meant to enhance their capacities in agribusiness.

The participants are beneficiaries of WAFM’s Challenge Fund Grants and were drawn from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria.

Stakeholders working to promote regulatory and policy reforms in food trade among these countries also participated at the retreat.

In his welcome remarks, the WAFM Team Leader, Dr Terence Lacey, said agriculture was important to the economic development of developing countries, especially those in West Africa.

“WAFM is contributing to boosting the purchasing power and the resilience of farmers and people to hunger and malnutrition in targeted countries,” Dr Lacey said.

He observed that there was the need to increase food production and improve agricultural value chains to ensure smooth trade on the major transit trade corridors in the subregion.

In doing so, he said particular attention should be given to sanitary and phytosanitary measures and non-tariff measures (NTMs), given their impact on food production and the agricultural value chain.

Attendees give testimonies

WAFM Challenge Fund Grantees who attended the retreat included Premium Foods Limited, AMYA Agro Plus and KEDAN Limited, all from Ghana.

The rest were AFEX Commodities Exchange, Psaltry International Limited and AACE Foods Limited from Nigeria; ADS Burkina, Neema Agricole du Faso SA (NAFASO) and Faso Agriculture Intrants (FAGRI) from Burkina Faso.

Those from Niger were Federation des Cooperatives Maraicheres (FCMN) and Entreprise de Transformation Céréalière (ETC).

Mr Akinyinka D. Akintunde, the Business Development Manager at the Nigerian-based AFEX Commodities Exchange, said the retreat was timely due to the current proactive approach being embraced by the WAFM Programme.

He said “end-to-end linkage of players in the value chain has greatly boosted our business.”

Dr Marie Bationo, the Managing Director of Amya Agro Plus Ltd. at Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana said his outfit had already exported gari to Burkina Faso, but was now planning to expand its production with the with WAFM support through the grant.

The expansion will include adding new product lines, she said.

“As an agribusiness woman involved with cassava, this retreat is very important for us,” she said.

The WAFM Policy Influencer for Nigeria, Dr Ken Ukaoha, Esq, testified that the WAFM investment had serious trickledown effects on positive impact on farmers in the region.

Dr Ukaoha, who is also the President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) and a member of the ECOWAS Heads of State Task Force on the ETLS and Free Movement Protocol, added that the WAFM programme had the ability to reduce food imports West Africa, which has remained a major cause of under-development.

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