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SUSTAINING AFRICA’s PRODUCE

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SUSTAINING AFRICA’s PRODUCE

OCP (Office Chérifien des Phosphates) is a Moroccan state-owned phosphate rock miner, phosphoric acid manufacturer and fertilizer producer. Founded in 1920, the company has grown to become among the world’s largest “supermajor” producers of phosphate and phosphate-based products and it is one of the largest phosphate, fertilizer, Chemicals and Mineral industrial companies in the world by revenue.
OCP has access to more than 70% of the world’s phosphate rock reserves. Initially a mining company, OCP diversified in 1965 to become a phosphate processor, making it the world’s largest and leading fertilizer manufacturers.
In Ethiopia, the OCP office was incorporated in September 2015 to support the development of Ethiopian Agriculture. Quite recently, due to the global rise of fertilizer prices , the firm has donated a total of 60,000MT to Ethiopia under OCP Group’s fertilizer relief program The relief program will be accompanied with OCP flagship programs that aim to develop the capacity of farmers and skills trainings to increase yield.
Capital reached out to Youssef Lahmiti, Managing Director of OCP Ethiopia and Vice President of OCP Africa, East Africa, for insights on the progress of OCP in Ethiopia and the inspiration behind the fertilizer donations, amongst other issues. Excerpts;

Capital: Tell us how the fertilizer donation came about?
Youssef Lahmiti: Along with supplying fertilizers to satisfy local demand OCP has been engaged in CSR in Ethiopia. The donation made under the fertilizer relief program initiated by OCP Group and is a donation from OCP to African countries in these times of fertilizer prices upsurge.
We decided on this donation based on the current context of fertilizers as the price has been increasing first due to COVID and now the War of Russia and Ukraine which is impacting the availability of the products as well as the prices too.
As we all know, Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer as well as Ukraine; since they are big producers of natural gas.
OCP is a state company in Morocco, a country that is well known as having the largest reserve of phosphate in the world, which amounts to 75% of the world’s phosphate reserve.
This is the first phase of our donations of the year, and we will be organizing more soon. Due to the urgency of the matter, we are providing donations to several African countries
This fertilizer relief program is of a total volume of 550,000 tons with 180,000 tons of fertilizer as a donation and 370,000 tons sold at discounted prices. Ethiopia has received 60,000 tons of the donations for free, which represents one third of the total amount donated under the relief program.

Capital: For what propose can this fertilizer be used?
Youssef Lahmiti: From the 60,000 tons of fertilizer, 50,000 metric tons of the donations is NPSB and will go towards supporting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s wheat initiatives in sustaining self sufficiency of wheat in the coming years.
From our end, we are impressed and command Ethiopia’s by these initiative, and we are happy to be able to support by providing these fertilizers. In the coming months we have plans to provide training to farmers on fertilizer usage and provide them with the technical tools to increase their yields.
The remaining 10,000 tons is TSP which will be supplied for two blending factories as a base of some blended materials. We are currently working on a programme of customization in two blending factories to produce fertilizers locally as such formulated blends will have a positive impact on the yield.
To this end the ongoing demonstrations and popularization of our blended fertilizers adapted to acid soils in Ethiopia should support farmers in Ethiopia.

Capital: What made Ethiopia to stand out and receive higher portions of the donation?
Youssef Lahmiti: Ethiopia consumes on average over 1 million tons of fertilizer per year. 60000 tons is our modest contribution to Ethiopia.
What led us to determine the donation here is the consumption and volume of demand in Ethiopia that is a large fertilizer consuming country.
Moreover, OCP is a key strategic partner to Ethiopia not only as a supplier of agricultural inputs but also due to our presence since 2016 that have enabled us to be well accustomed to the demand., Thus we pushed for a donation that takes into consideration the country’s general consumption.
The donation is contingent on the country’s use of fertilizers. Even though there is no set formula in which the OCP group allocates these donations, it’s important to understand that among the many criteria, we looked at the need of the country within our capacity.

Capital: OCP has been in Ethiopia since 2016 having a project in Dire Dawa. So on what stage is the project now?
Youssef Lahmiti: The project in Dire Dawa is still on the table and OCP is committed to realize the project.
This project is a partnership between the two, Ethiopia and Morocco governments, and it is based on the complementarities of naturalization between both parties. To produce fertilizers, we need some raw materials and with Ethiopia’s gas and Morocco’s phosphates, this project will be revolutionary.
The government of Ethiopia is pushing for this project and for the gas production part the Poly
GCL has failed to start the construction, thus we had faced some delays on this project.
I think there are issues to be solved and we are working closely with the government on the follow up, because we need the gas for our production. To this regard, we are also very appreciative of the Ministry of Mines for putting pressure on Poly GCL to solve this problem as soon as possible.
As they work to solve the issue, I would like to also state that we remain committed to this project because it’s a good opportunity for OCP to have a presence in this country for the long haul and we are also committed to reinforcing the idea of South-South cooperation in addition to helping countries that we partner up with in developing their capacity.
This project having been launched in 2016 in the presence of our King, and for us since we are a state company, we often receive questions on the project status. As OCP we will continue to work in partnership with the government to start construction as soon as possible.

Capital: The Minister of Agriculture on his speech has been indicating that the government expects you to complete the factory with in one or less than two years. How do you see this?
Youssef Lahmiti: It means that there is a strong commitment from the government. The commitments of the government with OCP for this project are very high. When he says one year it is not meaning this will be completed in one year, it cannot be built in one year. Building fertilizer companies is a time consuming and big project .
It is my believe that the government is committed to building the factory as fast as possible since there is an urgency to have a Pan African fertilizer manufacturing company. OCP happens to have the capacity, knowledge, and the natural resources support in that.
As I explained earlier, we have faced some delays because of Poly GCL and it is our understanding that the government is working tirelessly to find a solution to this. If the government plans to speed up the project within a year or two, there should be concerted efforts to find better ways in doing so, to which we are open to provide our assistance in full capacity. We are aware of how time sensitive this issue is and it is our hope that construction will begin sooner rather than later.

Capital: There are some people who argue that fertilizers have a negative impact on the farm land. What’s your take on these assumptions?
Youssef Lahmiti: There are 7 billion people in the world that we need to feed and fertilizers play a pivotal role in food security.
Scientifically, this assumption is not correct. To make more produce, the plant needs to be fed and fertilizers go a long way in ensuring that the right nutrients are available.
The supply of fertilizer is a direct answer for the global context of food insecurity to which African countries were on top of the list for food security hotspots. So when we speak about organic versus non organic, it’s important to understand the context in which you want to discuss it. Food security is a critical issue and as OCP we want to play a role in bringing sustainability with regards to food security through the provision of the necessary agricultural inputs for African countries and
African farmers so as to satisfy local demand and offer food security.

The importance of solarising Africa

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The importance of solarising Africa

By Ajay Mathur

Solar economics has transformed over the last decade, as the overall cost of solar deployment including price of modules, technology, and availability of land has fallen dramatically. Global installed capacity has expanded in response to the cost reduction and policy support and reached around 900GW by the end of 2021 from only 44GW in 2010. Member countries of the International Solar Alliance have played a significant part in this growth story. However, there is still work to be done.
Africa has the potential to be one of the significant markets in terms of solar power deployment. It is home to over 1.3 billion people but only half its population has access to electricity around 79% in urban and 35% in rural areas. Energy access is as low as 21 kWh per person per annum in some countries and in some others access ranges between 60-80 kWh per person per annum. This is significantly lower than the basic energy needs of 300 kWh per person p.a. It is estimated that power shortages cost the continent about 2% – 4% of GDP a year.
The African continent will need to double its capacity to 497 GW between now and 2030 to meet the rising energy demand. It cannot be based on fossil fuels because of climate change reasons, but also because of rising energy import bills. Solar and renewables offer the most viable alternatives, with prices now almost in the same range as those of fossil fuel. In addition, conditions for solar energy are excellent in Africa, where sunshine is not only abundant but also much more reliable than elsewhere. Solar also has the advantage of being modular and, therefore, being able, together with batteries, to supply electricity needs in remote areas thus postponing the need for investment in long, under-loaded transmission lines.
Africa needs USD 70 billion of investments in the solar sector in the next 5-7 years. Energy access interventions such as solar home systems and mini-grid alone constitute ~50% of this investment requirement. However, existing investment in the solar sector is approximately USD 13 billion and focused on few regions; even these existing investment pools largely remain un-deployed. Therefore, solar energy sector in Africa will need about six to ten times more capital to be deployed in the sector in the next 8-10 years.
The global climate financial flows, though increasing, were a meagre 632 billion USD in 2020 as against the required of 4.35 trillion USD annually by 2030. The challenge therefore is that of attracting finance to meet energy needs of today and tomorrow, while also addressing climate change, the pre-eminent global crisis of our times. Solar is a globally acknowledged remedy, but investment inflows that can build large shares of solar and deliver a massive scale-up of clean power to underpin widespread electrification remains a challenge. One way of mobilizing investments is to go beyond traditional financing approaches. Innovative climate finance structures can be deployed to improve capital efficiency and overcome the barriers to finance which have stifled investment to date. Traditional financial instruments, such as concessional debt and grants, are widely used in Africa, but create a situation in which growth is limited. This concessional debt and grants could be deployed more efficiently to target specific barriers to finance and thence result in pulling in commercial investment capital, which would greatly enhance the total solar investments. More nuanced solutions like structured finance and capital market instruments have been incorporated into innovative financial structures in markets, such as Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya, and hold great potential for further deployment to catalyze local private investment in climate solutions.
For under-represented segments and geographies which have unmet investment needs, the International Solar Alliance is designing a blended finance facility aimed at stimulating high potential solar technologies, by attracting private capital to flow in such technologies. This Facility’s current geographical focus is Africa, with potential expansion to other regions of the world. The Facility is open for all countries to join to maximize its impact across regions. The ISA is creating a relatively small pool of concessional capital and grants (about USD 700 million) which would mitigate risk and thus attract around USD 10 billion in follow-on investments, and will enable energy access in 35–40 million African households by 2030, and thereby impacting 200 million people in the region. It will also offset more than a million tonnes of CO2 emissions in intervention countries.
Government action is essential if we are to tackle climate change. Given their catalytic role, it will be important for governments to take initiatives to address specific barriers that are most salient to the private sector. Better communication with local private investors and political institutions around the main barriers to investments in a specific country can help raise awareness and inform targeted action by governments to improve investment conditions. Measures like capacity building, risk mitigation instruments, policy interventions, and simplification of regulatory processes have all evidently benefitted many African countries.
Although this interest of the private sector has come in late, it is better late than never. There have been substantial challenges in attracting private investments, given the perception of risk linked to investments in the African continent. A limited understanding of national contexts by private investors often aggravates it. It will be important to trust and harness the power and ingenuity of market. Markets are the self-generating sources of financing that shape business models and transform economies. Properly harnessed, they can deliver solutions at scale.

Ajay Mathurv (PhD) is Director General of International Solar Alliance

Who are you?

Ton Haverkort
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Who are you?

The past two weeks we looked into stress, factors that cause stress and some ways of managing stress. We classified stress in constructive stress and destructive stress, realizing that stress does not always act as a negative influence on our lives. Constructive stress in fact acts in a positive way for the individual or organization, while destructive stress or distress is dysfunctional for the individual and the organization. Excessive high levels of stress can overload and break down a person’s physical and mental systems. Performance may suffer and workers experience illness brought on by very intense stress and they may react by being absent from work, making mistakes, causing accidents, dissatisfaction, reduced performance or even unethical behaviour, like cheating. Factors that cause stress can be classified into three categories: work factors, non-work factors and personal factors.
We concluded that if all workers face stress to a certain extend it is important that managers recognise stress as people display certain stress related behaviour. The key thing is to look for changes from normal patterns, like from regular attendance to absenteeism, from punctuality to tardiness, from diligence to carelessness, from a positive attitude to a negative attitude, from openness to resistance or from cooperation to hostility. The role of stress in the work setting is complex, with constructive stress facilitating performance and destructive stress reducing performance and impairing the worker’s health.
It is thus very important for management to find a good fit between the individual, the work environment and the amount of job stress involved. Such a fit stimulates productivity without damaging health.
Having said that, people react and respond differently to stress they are exposed to and some people can endure more stress than others. One orientation towards the differences in personalities in relation to stress, is the Type A and Type B orientation. To get a feel for this orientation, take the following quiz. Circle the number that best characterises you on each of the following pairs of characteristics.

Casual about appointments 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Never late
Not competitive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very competitive
Never feel rushed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Always feel rushed
Take one thing at a time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Try to do many things
Do things slowly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Do things fast
Express my feelings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hold in my feelings
Many outside interests 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Few outside interests

Now total your points for the seven items in the quiz. Multiply this total by 3 to arrive at a final score. Use this total score to locate your Type A/Type B orientation on the following list.
Final points A/B orientation
Below 90 B
90-99 B+
100-105 A-
106-119 A
120 or more A+

Individuals with a Type A orientation are characterized by impatience, desire for achievement and perfectionism. In contrast, those with Type B orientation are characterized as more easy-going and as less competitive in relation to daily events.
Think about your Type A/Type B orientation and its implications, both in terms of your work and non work behaviours and your personal health. Type A people tend to work fast and to be impatient, uncomfortable, irritable, and aggressive. Such tendencies indicate obsessive behaviour, a fairly widespread – but not always helpful – trait amongst managers. Many managers are hard driving, detail-oriented people who have high performance standards and thrive on routine. But when carried to the extreme, this may lead to greater concerns for the details than the results, resistance to change, overzealous control of subordinates and various kinds of interpersonal difficulties, which may even include unacceptable behaviour like threats and physical violence. In contrast, Type B managers tend to be much more laid back and patient in their dealings with co-workers and subordinates.
Now, who are you? Do you recognise yourself in any of the above-described traits and personality orientations? Key again is to find a balance I guess, whereby the most important question to answer is how our behaviour can be applied to contribute most effectively to the purpose of the organization.

Source: Managing Organizational Behavior – Schermerhorn/Hunt/Osborn
Ton Haverkort

Boosting innovation and investment in Africa

Staff Reporter
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Boosting innovation and investment in Africa

On the margin of the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8) in Tunis, Tunisia, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) launched a new partnership to enhance trade and investment between Japanese and African private sector businesses.
“This expanded partnership between four key partners will enable us to enhance our contribution to Africa’s sustainable development path. Together, we will better meet the increased demand from Africa to develop partnerships with Japanese businesses,” highlighted Nobuhiko Sasaki, Chairman and CEO of JETRO.
As a global leader in information and digital technologies, partners agreed to work together to strengthen links between small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa with Japanese technologies and business know-how. Other areas of cooperation include regular dialogues, consultations and joint communications and advocacy activities.
“To strengthen economic recovery, a swift and adequate response is required, including an urgent scale-up in dynamic, innovative partnerships for Africa’s development,” said Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary General and UNDP Administrator. “This enhanced quadripartite agreement sets actions beyond temporary solutions. By connecting innovators and fostering investments from Japan, it supports more sustainable developments in Africa.”

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