Nigeria to leverage on public-private partnership with OneAgrix for better market access in agriculture and halal under AfCFTA

Nigeria is poised to leverage on the recent launch of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) for its Agricultural and Halal food products with its public-private partnership with OneAgrix, a global B2B Agriculture and Halal marketplace. This enables the country to gain better market access by using OneAgrix’s trading platform both regionally and globally.

With the implementation of the AfCFTA, countries in the African continent can increase their intra-continent trade by reducing trade barriers, especially in the agri-food products which will enable them to improve their food security. Food security is an issue that has been highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic as more countries are looking to diversify their food sources.

In tandem with the commencement of the AfCFTA, Dr. Noel Akpata has launched a Nigeria Feeds The World Initiative, that will economically empower the country’s smallholder farmers, and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). This will allow those in the agri-food sector to access markets within the continent and beyond especially markets that cater for the halal consumers. All these are made possible through the OneAgrix marketplace platform which is the country’s official technology and platform partner under this initiative.

The Nigeria Feeds The World Initiative is a pilot program that will showcase what Africa has to offer to the world and the Halal market. The platform will help Africa to realize its economic opportunity in its agricultural sector, via an integrated market under the AfCFTA in an expedient and efficient manner.

“Under the AfCFTA, a centralized digital trading platform, a marketplace, that increases connectivity, trade exposure as well as solves logistics and payment issues is required. OneAgrix is this trading platform. We have partnered with International Trade Centre I(ITC) which is a joint mandate between the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, to facilitate and increase African countries’ participation in the global market,” said Diana Sabrain, CEO and co-founder of OneAgrix.

“OneAgrix and Nigeria Feeds The World Initiative will bridge the connection between African suppliers and international buyers,” she further adds.

The country is well positioned as it is the largest economy in the African continent, as well as a member of African Union, and of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

In addition, the Nigeria government stresses on the importance of their food quality, by being an African pioneer in food traceability. With improvements in their food quality production, and via food traceability systems, Nigeria is hoping to access the European and Middle Eastern Halal markets. More importantly this opportunity is available to smallholders and farmers which can be a game changer for them. 

The potential of this partnership is that more African smallholders and farmers will offer value added products which is a feature that is already available with OneAgrix’s platform. It is well documented by empirical studies that profitability for smallholders increases significantly when they venture into value added products from the commodity that they produce.

The combined use of the latest technologies, such as IoT, blockchain, serialization, and food forensics on OneAgrix’s technology ecosystem enable farm to fork supply-chain traceability. All these features ensure the highest standards for food safety and quality is offered so what OneAgrix had to offer is more than just a marketplace provides and logistics support for market access.

“This partnership was made possible by the support of Dr. Noel Akpata, founder of the Nigeria Feeds The World Initiative, Chairman of Horasis Nigerian Economic Development Council, Shamsudeen Usman , the government of Nigeria, the Nigeria’s Governors' Forum, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, Chairman of Horasis, Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter and many other who are working hard behind the scene”, Ms. Sabrain concludes.

Copyright Press Releases 2021

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