The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a US$11.7 million budgetary allocation to the African Fertiliser Financing Mechanism for its 2023 operations.
The approval adds up to US$16.4 million extended to the Facility to support its 2023 budget.
It includes US$4.7 million, which was carried over from the previous year.
The Board of Directors also validated AFFM’s 2023 program of activities: strengthening the fertiliser sector through access to finance, supporting the development of sustainable policy reforms to improve fertiliser production, trade and use, and facilitating access to inputs and technical assistance for smallholder farmers.
AFFM plans to continue implementing three commercial credit guarantee projects amounting to US$8.3 million.
The recipient countries are Zimbabwe (US$4.3 million), Côte d’Ivoire (US$2 million), and Ghana (US$2 million). For 2023, it plans to implement trade credit guarantee schemes totaling US$9.7 million in Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya. Three more new projects could be launched in Senegal, Zambia and Ghana if the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) follows through on its US$15 million commitment to the AFFM.
The 2023 projects will be implemented to support the second pillar of the Bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility, which was launched to avert a looming food crisis in Africa following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, AFFM will actively work with African countries and other key stakeholders to develop the national food and agriculture pacts that the continent’s leaders presented at the Feed African Summit in Dakar in January 2023.
The AFFM will facilitate smallholder farmers’ access to inputs and extension services through credit guarantee projects and capacity building for farmers and input distributors.
