NIGERIA FERTILIZER TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP 2014 FERTILIZER STATISTICS VALIDATION WORKSHOP. Workshop Report. Karu, June, 2015

Transcription

1 NIGERIA FERTILIZER TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP 2014 FERTILIZER STATISTICS VALIDATION WORKSHOP Karu, June, Workshop Report Karu, June,

2 Introduction The AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) in collaboration with the USAID West Africa Fertilizer Program (WAFP), and CountrySTAT Nigeria organized the 2015 annual Fertilizer Technical Working Group (CS NFTWG) validation workshop at Ramat Hotel, Karu, Nigeria, from June, Participants at the workshop were key fertilizer stakeholders from CountrySTAT Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD), Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), National Agriculture Seeds Council (NASC), National Planning Commission (NPC), IFDC Nigeria (the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) program, Agro-input to Production Expansion USAID (APEx), MARKETS II, etc.) and Private Sector (Fertilizer Importers: Notore Chemical Industries Plc., Tak Agro & Chemicals Ltd. and Golden Fertilizer Company Ltd.). Objectives of the workshop The purpose of the workshop was to discuss with key Nigerian fertilizer stakeholders to understand their challenges regarding access to relevant statistics on fertilizer production, trade, consumption, sales and prices. The workshop was also meant to review how players in the Nigeria Fertilizer industry could monitor fertilizer consumption for agricultural use in order to provide reliable data to national institutions and the private sector in policy making. The overall goal of the workshop was to harness the experience of the stakeholders in assessing, sharing, validating and consolidating vital: fertilizer production data in Nigeria fertilizer use by crop/consumption data on Nigeria fertilizer trade data on Nigeria Establish best ways to share, compile, package and disseminate opportunely valid fertilizer statistics in Nigeria among all relevant stakeholders Discuss fertilizer policies and implementation programs in Nigeria and its contribution to fertilizer use. Opening The opening session of the workshop was chaired by IFDC Government Liaison officer, Mr. Ekpiken Henry. It commenced with self-introduction of participants. Thereafter, Mr Onyeri, Ndubuisi, CountrySTAT Nigeria National Coordinator gave a welcome address while Mr. Ekpiken Henry presented the Goodwill Message from IFDC. Their messages summarized the current activities of CountrySTAT and IFDC respectively. Preview of the 2014 FTWG (FTWG) Workshop The recommendations from the 2014 FTWG joint workshop with FTWG Nigeria held in Accra on 14th-16 th April were reviewed by Japhet Lartey, USAID WAFP, MIS Specialist after which Mr. 2

3 Onyeri gave a summary of the activities and challenges of CountrySTAT in Nigeria and its collaborative and capacity building activities with AFO. Update of FTWG/ AfricaFertilizer.org Activities AFO Database& Website Manager, Fred Gyasi, reviewed the main objectives of AFO, including its support to CountrySTAT, Partners and Partner programs and the indicators they monitor such as international prices, local and subsidized prices and fertilizer statistics among others. He also explained the AFO website and its new features as well as the relationship between AFO, the FTWG and regional Technical Working Group (TWG). Review of Nigeria Fertilizer data Mr. Gyasi gave an insightful overview of Nigeria fertilizer statistics from 2009 to He however noted that the 2014 Nigeria import data from the customs did not have detailed description of products which could hinder proper analysis to determine the actual usage and grades of the specific product. He outlined other weaknesses of the customs data to include inaccurate values and volumes. On the aspect of fertilizer production, export, and actual consumption, he suggested that data from the Global Trade Information System (GTIS) could be used as bench mark to cross check data from the customs. The first meeting day was categorized into four sessions focusing on fertilizer data: setting the context; perspectives from national partners; discussions and sharing of knowledge on relevant fertilizer statistics. In setting the context for fertilizer data, a number of issues and suggestions were raised with regards to sources of data, classification and policy reforms. 3

4 It was established during the session that there were huge disparity in initial 2014 imports data sent by customs when it was mirrored with sources like GTIS which prompted another request for new data set from the Customs to be validated at the workshop. On the aspect of exports, the representative of the Nigeria Customs explained that the data are captured manually and therefore not comprehensive enough to be given out. It was however noted that the sources of fertilizer export in Nigeria are very few and could therefore be tracked through proper contacts with the agencies involved directly with an example being the Nigerian Port Authority or the major suppliers. In light of the discussions on issues raised on classification, it was observed that HS Code gives classification to all the products including NPK less than 10kg and more than 10kg. However, there was a different view that the HS code might not be correctly applied in the Nigerian context as most fertilizer imports into Nigeria came in bulk and are later bagged in smaller quantities at different ends. Data from the Nigerian Ports Authority was therefore suggested to be used as complementary to the customs. Still on the issue of classification, it was noted that FAO was yet to respond to an inquiry by IFDC on how to classify contents such as polyimide and psyride. The need to train relevant staff of the Nigerian Customs on the technicalities of Fertilizer HS code classification directly by IFDC was also requested and stressed by participants. During discussions on fertilizer import reforms in Nigeria, it was observed that existing protocol whereby the permit required to import fertilizer into Nigeria comes from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) while the Fertilizer Department of the Ministry of Agriculture confirms the product and the office of the National Security Adviser confirms the use could lead to overlap or clash of interests. Although there are cases where similar scenarios had worked well, like in the trade sector, it was stressed that the agencies concerned need to meet and streamline their roles and mandates to avoid conflicts. It was suggested that IFDC could lead such dialogue to bring harmony to the regulatory sector. Presentations from some national and private sector partners of the Nigeria FTWG on sources of fertilizer data. The Executive of Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Kwa presented the Fertilizer use by crop (FUBC) study that was conducted for AfricaFertilizer.Org in December 2013 after which Mr. Gideon Negedu also gave the perspective of the private sector in relation to fertilizer consumption data. He noted that most farmers are ignorant of the size of their farms, which makes data capturing a problem. Mr. Felix Nwoche commented that, IFDC s Cassava+ project used GPS to pilot and determine the actual coordinates and size of farms but that method was too expensive. Mr. Negedu then suggested that, stakeholders can build capacity of retailers to capture or measure farm sizes which will in turn, help know the fertilizer used by crops. Japhet also suggested that a one page questionnaire can be designed for focal points to capture information in a yearly survey, which will make data available. Mr. Negedu added that the problem for private sector mostly is getting quality and reliable data to plan. He 4

5 concluded that there has been an improvement in Nigeria as data is now available but what was left was to look at the authenticity and process by which these data was arrived at and that was also the purpose of the meeting. Felix and Mrs. Ihuoma Ugwu also enlightened participants about the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) program and data acquired through the program as well as the Touch and Pay (TAP) technology implementation. It was also noted that there are some reliable sources such as National Agric. Extension Resources Services, Producers, Customs, Census and the annual agric. Survey activities. Mr. Negedu shared a publication that had a lot of information on fertilizer sales statistics trends through the GES program, etc. in Nigeria by the Federal Government Nigeria. Generally there were discussions and sharing of knowledge throughout the sessions and it was also noted that there has been an improvement in fertilizer data since the establishment of the Nigeria FTWG, but it was raised that members should be encouraged to share more information centered on the fertilizer sector. Mr. Felix Nwoche commented that, IFDC s cassava plus project used GPS to take actual coordinates and size of farms but that method too was expensive. Mr. Negedu then suggested that, stakeholders can build capacity of retailers to capture or measure farm sizes which will in turn, help know the fertilizer used by crops. Japhet also suggested that a one page questionnaire can be designed for focal points to capture information in a yearly survey, which will make data available. Mr. Negedu added that the problem for most private sector is getting quality reliable data to plan. He concluded that there has been an improvement in Nigeria regarding sharing of data but more needs to be done. The full participation and immense contributions from the house with closing remarks from Mr. Henry Ekpiken brought the day s session to an end after 5 pm. 5

6 Recommendations 1. There are issues with the fertilizer sector and IFDC can facilitate or bring together major stakeholders to enlighten the government on policies that will provide an enabling environment for the private sector 2. NAFDAC should be invited to the next FTWG meeting as you can t import fertilizers without their approval. 19 th June, 2015 Fertilizer Data Processing & Validation of 2014 Fertilizer Statistics for Nigeria The second day s session of the workshop commenced with a recap of the previous day s activities given by Antonina Bawuah, AFO Project Assistant. Alhaji Zakari and Mr. Okuku opened the floor with sharing of knowledge based on the discussions from the previous day. Fred led the team through the pre-processed data obtained from customs with explanations of the process used to clean the data. The Nigeria 2014 imports data was then validated by participants and the CountrySTAT output table was generated Import, Export Apparent Consumption and Non Fertilizer Use volumes. During the validation, Alhaji Kwa promised to get the actual volumes imported per product from five known importers to mirror the data that was validated. After the validation, participants helped update the CountrySTAT output table with 2014 statistics for Nigeria. Japhet held one on one discussions with selected participants on what data is available from their institutions to help derive appropriately fertilizer usage or consumptions statistics. Through this discussions, some of the importers promised to share some of their sales volumes directly with AFO to assist in computing fertilizer consumption based on a format shared with 6

7 them. A few of the national institutions such as the NASC and FISSD representative promised to check with National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) and other department to confirm if they have some farm level data associated with fertilizer usage (eg: farm sizes, crops grown, types of fertilizer applied, plantation/cash crops related production data, cash crops receipts from GES). FEPSAN provided their fertilizer prices and fertilizer consumption data. The only limitation here was that only 2-3 importers have provided some data so far. Participants and the facilitators also discussed some of the challenges and solutions to getting good data for the FUBC study on Nigeria. Closing remarks and a vote of thanks were given by Mr. Henry Ekpiken and that brought this year s CS NFTWG workshop to an end. Recommendations 1. Customs to provide imports with detailed description to help make more analysis with data. 2. The fertilizer sector should build the capacity of customs to help capture good information about trade. 3. Workshop of all CountrySTAT FTWG countries to share ideas and information. 4. Refresh CountrySTAT members on output tables. 5. Next year s FTWG meeting should be held at Kaduna. FEPSAN ready to share the cost. Acknowledgements The authors of this report appreciates the attendance and contributions from all the members and partners of the Nigeria Fertilizer Technical Working Group. Links to Documents Readers can click on the links below to access and download more documents and files Fertilizer statistics (CountrySTAT format, in excel) Presentations and working documents Photos 7

8 2015 NIGERIA FTWG Action Plans and Activities Timing Activities Responsible TBD CountrySTAT NIGERIA Technical Working Group meeting. COUNTRYSTAT NIGERIA Jun-July 2015 Customs to provide imports data with detailed descriptions NIGERIA CUSTOMS/AFO Jul-Dec 2015 IFDC assistance to advocate and support IFDC/FMARD government to reform fertilizer sector policies and regulations. TBD Customs Personnel Capacity Building on Fertilizer Terminologies, Classifications and Statistics AFO/NIGREIA CUSTOMS Processing Jul-Aug 2015 IFDC draft letter formal letter to Cellulant to release AFO/FELIX /HENRY GES distribution data by crop value chain to support fertilizer use computations Jul 2015 Sharing of TAP distribution data by access URL to Ihuoma Ugwu support fertilizer use computations AFO should support the FMARD to incorporate short fertilizer use questionnaires in the annual agricultural surveys TBD Regional FTWG validation Workshop AFO (Mrs.) AFO/FMARD 8

9 Annex 1: agenda NIGERIA FERTILIZER TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP WORKSHOP 18th - 19th JUNE, RAMAT HOTEL & SUITES, KARU - NIGERIA AGENDA DAY 1 Thursday 18 June, 2015 NIGERIAFTWG WORKSHOP 8:30 Introduction o Registration of participants o Introduction (participants) o Welcome address o Short Message (IFDC) o Presentation of training program/objectives/expectations 9:00 Session 1 CountrySTAT / AfricaFertilizer.org partnership Adoption of the minutes of the last FTWG meeting (2014) Update of CountrySTAT Technical Working Group Meetings and plans for 2015 and beyond. Update of FTWG/ AfricaFertilizer.org activities and a tour of the new AFO website. 9:30 Session 2 Fertilizer Data Setting the Context Review of Nigeria fertilizer data available (2009, up to 2013): Dashboard 10:30 Coffee / tea break Responsible ANTONINA BAWUAH JAPHET LARTEY NDUBUISI ONYERI HENRY EKPIKEN JAPHET LARTEY JAPHET LARTEY NDUBUISI ONYERI FRED GYASI F. GYASI 10:50 Session 2 Cont d Fertilizer Data Setting the Context Making a case for fertilizer data: the challenges, what is needed, where can we get this?? (Production, Trade: Imports/Exports, Apparent Consumption and Real Consumption, Prices, etc.) - Discussions, commentaries and questions by participants 12:00 Session 3 Fertilizer Data Perspectives from national partners FUBC Study 2014 (2015 update, sources: consumption/sales data per crop, estimates of sales on cash crops/plantations besides GES food crops, etc.) 1:00 o Lunch break JAPHET LARTEY H. EKPIKEN ALHAJI AHMED RABIU KWA 2:00 Session 4 Fertilizer Data Discussions and Sharing Fertilizer data available (Production, Trade, Consumption, Sales, Prices): FEPSAN and the private sector perspective - Discussions, commentaries and questions by participants GIDEON NEGEDU 9

10 Fertilizer data available (Production, Trade, Consumption, Sales, Prices and others): USAID APEX Program Perspective: - Discussions, commentaries and questions by participants Fertilizer data available (Subsidy program, Consumption, Sales, Prices and others): Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS)Program perspective - Discussions, commentaries and questions by participants JOY IHUOMA UGWU FELIX NWOCHE NDUBUISI ONYERI JAPHET LARTEY CountrySTAT Nigeria perspective: Fertilizer data available (Production, Trade, Apparent Consumption, etc.) - Discussions, commentaries and questions by participants Discussions, Data sharing and consolidation of perspectives for next day workshop group activities 17:00 Workshop Closes DAY 2 Friday19 June, 2015 NIGERIA FTWG WORKSHOP 8:30 Session 1 o Recap of Previous day s activities 9:00 Session 2 Group Work Session Group 1: Trade Data Group 2: FUBC/Consumption 10:00 Coffee / tea break 10:30 Wrap Up Agreement on possible data output formats 1:00pm o Lunch break WORKSHOP CLOSES Final Words and Vote of Thanks Responsible ANTONINA BAWUAH F. GYASI J. LARTEY J. LARTEY NDUBUISI ONYERI /Antonina BAWUAH 10

11 Annex 2: List of Participants No. Name Last Name Institution Position Country Mobile Profesional 1 Adamu Sale SALE 2 H.S. Joshua JOSHUA Farm Inputs Support Service Department of Federal Fertilizer Department [FFD/FMARD] Federal Fertilizer Department [FFD/FMARD] Assistant Director Nigeria ujibrin3264@gmail.com SAO Nigeria Sanasijoshua06@yahoo.com 3 Bertram C. Nsofor NSOFOR Customs Asst. Compt. / trade statistics Nigeria bertramnsofor@yahoo.com 4 Ovat Bassey BASSEY Ministry of Agriculture 5 Ndubuisi Onyeri ONYERI PRSD/FMARD 6 Patrick UNIOR National Agriculture Seeds Council (NASC) Member, CountrySTAT Secretariat - IT focal person Chief Statistician / CountrySTAT national coordinator Seed information and data management Nigeria ovatbassey@gmail.com Nigeria neonyeri@yahoo.com Nigeria uniorp@yahoo.com 7 S.A. ILEUMA National Planning Commission Assistant Director Nigeria ileuma@yahoo.com 8 Innocent OKUKU Notore Chemicals Head Commercial Dept Nigeria innocent.okuku@notore.com 9 Alhaji Saidu G.B. ZAKARI Golden Fertilizer National Agriculture Representative Nigeria szakari99@gmail.com 10 Alhaji Ahmed Rabiu KWA 11 Samuel ALI 12 Gideon NEGEDU Fertilizer Association of Nigeria [FEPSAN] Fertilizer Association of Nigeria [FEPSAN] TAK AGRO/ Fertilizer Association of Nigeria [FEPSAN] Executive Secretatry Nigeria fepsannigeria@yahoo.com Advocacy Officer Nigeria info@fepsannigeria.com Senior Manager Sales and Marketing / Liaison Officer Nigeria negedu@hotmail.com 13 Joy Ihuoma UGWU IFDC GES/Agro-Dealer Coordinator, APEx Nigeria iugwu@ifdc.org 14 Henry EKPIKEN IFDC Government Liaison Officer Nigeria ehenry@ifdc.org 15 Felix NWOCHE IFDC 16 Japhet LARTEY IFDC 17 Fred GYASI IFDC IFDC database / MIS specialist Nigeria fnwoche@ifdc.org Database & Web Specialist, USAID WAFP Web & Database Manager, AfricaFertilizer.org Ghana jlartey@ifdc.org Ghana fgyasi@ifdc.org 18 Antonina BAWUAH IFDC AFO, Project Assistant Ghana abawuah@ifdc.org Excused 19 Bamidele AKANDE National Bureau of Statistics [NBS] Nigeria btakande@nigerianstat.gov.ng 20 Vipin PATEL Olam Branch Manager Nigeria vipin.patel@olamnet.com 21 Avijit Sinha Indorama Senior Manager Marketing Nigeria asinha@indorama.com.ng 22 Pradeep SARKAR Springfield General Manager Nigeria ; ; ; pradeep@springfieldagro.com 11