The Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework stocktaking validation meeting and launch was officially held in Abuja Nigeria on the 16thMay 2019.The event specifically  served to validate the stocktaking report  with all relevant stakeholders .

The event brought together stakeholders from public, private sectors, NGO’s and development partners of the country’s agricultural sector to launch and deliberate on the CAP-F implementation and roadmap.  

 The Country Agribusiness Partnerships Framework (CAP-F) is well embedded within the Nigeria NAIP, it is recognized as the tool that could foster private sector investment in the Nigerian agricultural sector. The desired impact of CAP-F is to unlock the private sector investment necessary to achieve national and continental goals for the agriculture sector. 

To kick off the programme, Mr Saddiq Kassim delivered the welcome address on behalf of the President of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG),  Mr Sani Dangote commending the existing partnership between the NABG and Grow Africa.  

The NABG reaffirmed its commitment to working with Grow Africa to engage government and private sector in setting policy directions and regulatory reforms to create an enabling environment for agribusiness to thrive. He added that the partnership will help attain the goal of enhancing the competitiveness of the entire agriculture value chain thereby ensuring food security and positioning agribusiness  as a key driver for growth in the Nigerian economy.

This was followed by a goodwill message and remarks by the Director of Agribusiness, processing and Marketing within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, Mr Muyiwa Azeez, whoacknowledged the need for the Country agribusiness partnership framework and welcomed Grow Africa’s efforts towards supporting the directorates mandate of “Transforming Agribusiness through Investment”.He went on to emphasis that unlocking Nigeria’s full agricultural potential requires addressing underlying challenges of which one of the solutions will be achieved by government applying prudent market-based policy measures to grow the sector. 

 Grow Africa’s Chief Operations Officer Mr Ibrahim Gourouza went on to set the tone of the day, with a comprehensive speech detailing the road map for the implementation of CAP-F, specifically laying emphasis on the value proposition of the framework.

In his speech Mr Gourouza congratulated the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the leadership of the Honourable Minister Chief Audu Ogbeh for promoting agriculture as the key factor for a successful economy, by focusing the policy instruments on a government enabled, and  private sector led engagement as the main growth driver of the sector. Mr Gourouza further went on to announce the Nigeria Agribusiness Group multi stakeholder platform as the host of the CAP-F secretariat .

There was an interactive session for dialogue on the stocktaking report amongst the stakeholders which concluded with the validation of the report and further recommendations from the stakeholders.

In conclusion the Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework was well received, with the stakeholders anticipating the commencement of the match making and deal unlocking process, thereby requesting an investment forum.