Development finance institution (DFI) the African Development Bank (AfDB) says the Africa Fertiliser Financing Mechanism (AFFM) Governing Council has committed to mobilising funds to implement the AFFM Strategic Plan 2022 - 2028 to support the increased availability and appropriate use of fertiliser on the continent.

The strategic plan prioritises broadening access to finance through capital investments and policy reforms. Technical assistance will also be provided to boost smallholder farmers' access and appropriate fertiliser use, the DFI says.

The processes of sustainable production, distribution, use and management of fertilisers and soil health are critical for the transformation of African agriculture. All of these call for AFFM to undertake its function to avail appropriate financing instruments, which will allow the private sector to invest, and for our farmers to have access and appropriately use this important input in African agriculture, the AfDB says.

Through the end of 2022, trade credit guarantees totalling $8.8-million provided 5.3-times leverage, enabling the provision of 112 268 t of fertiliser to 690 896 smallholder farmers in four countries. Under these projects, 97 small and medium-sized enterprises gained access to finance, and 138 companies, including fertiliser suppliers, hub-agro dealers and aggregators, and 20 987 smallholder farmers, benefited from capacity building.

Further, to scale up its trade credit guarantee investments, the AFFM has developed a pipeline of projects for implementation in 2023. These will be rolled out in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

The AFFM is one of the important vehicles for achieving the AfDB's Feed Africa Strategy objectives, says AfDB agriculture, human and social development VP Dr Beth Dunford.

“It is no surprise that AFFM has been instrumental in supporting the implementation of the bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility. I’m proud to say that the bank has mobilised our agriculture expertise to roll out facility programmes in 24 African countries,” she says.

The AFFM must be strengthened to support the implementation of decisions that will emerge from the 2023 Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit, scheduled for June and July in Dakar, Senegal, says African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment and AFFM Governing Council chairperson Ambassador Josefa Sacko.