Grow Africa, through Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F), is a unique model for forging the connections between the public and private sectors needed to support the growth of the agriculture sector and unlock investment opportunities necessary to achieve national and continental goals for the agriculture sector. The envisioned outcome of a CAP-F process is a set of flagship agribusiness partnerships that enable companies, governments and farmers to strengthen priority value chains in a country. 

CAP-F will serve as mechanism for establishing effective public private engagement to create agribusiness partnerships in a country.  Agribusiness partnerships are unique in that they often involve numerous parties in both the downstream and upstream phases of the investment.  The function of a CAP-F is to support these agribusiness partnerships through; coordination, policy improvement, investment mobilization and mutual accountability. 

In collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, an event, to officially launch CAP-F in Ghana was hosted on the 14th of May, 2019. The launch event also served as a platform to validate the stocktaking report carried out by Grow Africa of the agribusiness landscape in Ghana, which determines the Roadmap for operationalization of CAP-F.

The workshop brought together relevant stakeholders of the country’s agricultural sector to launch and deliberate on the CAP-F implementation strategy and roadmap.  The meeting kicked off with a kick off with a key note address from the Director of Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation within Ghanaian Ministry of Food & Agriculture, Mrs Angela Dannson. During her introduction she acknowledged the importance of the partnership with Grow Africa and using the CAP-F tool to stimulate investment interest within the private sector and enhance PPP in Ghana within the Agric industry.

She noted, “Grow Africa’s Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F) is an essential tool to support the globalization of Ghana’s agricultural advancement plan.” 

 Speaking at the workshop, Mr Ibrahim Gourouza, Grow Africa’s Chief Operating Officer, emphasized that CAP-F will facilitate the alignment of private sector investments commitments with public sector policy and infrastructure obligations and provides a mechanism for all parties to hold each other accountable for their obligations.  “Agribusiness is key to driving the socio-economic transformation and wealth creation ambitions on the continent. CAP-F will generate the private sector interest in Agribusiness and the need for effective partnership”, he stated. 

To conclude Mr Ibrahim Gourouza stressed on the need for political will in ensuring that local produce can compete favorably with foreign substitutes.

Ghana has been an active player in the CAADP process and there is a strong will for CAP-F amongst the stakeholders. As an immediate next step, the meeting has agreed to set up the Ghana CAP F secretariat within the ministry of food and agriculture.  The secretariat will coordinate the activities of CAP-F in the Republic of Ghana which aims to mobilize private sector action aligned to National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs) through the creation of partnerships to collectively achieve agricultural transformation goals.