One Stop Shop for Ghana’s Agriculture: AFGRI Ghana

Interview with Gerrie Jordaan, Country Manager (Ghana) of AFGRI

Give us more details about food security and the new government’s approach to agriculture. What do you personally see as the most pressing issues?

The Feed the Future in Ghana program and the creation of jobs for the people are the most important issues. There is a large gap in the agriculture business. The approach of the new government is quite prominent. We have been invited to a few conferences with the government. They want to get the private sector involved in helping to develop Ghana.

Are there any specific plans or reforms? Has the government taken any steps?

They are planning to have one village, one dam, and one factory to produce food within Ghana, to have water available, storage, and to take the product and refine it to sell it at a better price.

You have stressed that AFGRI Ghana is not only about agricultural products, but also the services behind it. You also spoke of expanding into storage facilities and milling. Could you summarize the major developments since 2015 and where you stand now?

With food storage and storage facilities, we are currently on hold because there is not enough food in the country to store. The government has provided small storage in the villages for the people to store their own crops. The opportunity is not big enough. We have conducted investigations, but it is not viable for us at the moment. We want to help people with servicing, mechanization planning, and ways to find the correct equipment for their needs. We want to become the one stop shop for agriculture.

We go around Ghana once a year. Then, for about two months every year, we have a road show where we train two to three hundred people on basic training, servicing, and how to look after the equipment.

What other countries do you service and what operations do you have in these countries?

We researched and began to sell equipment and grow our business in Togo and Benin. We also offer servicing and support. This expansion has helped us as a business quite a lot.

The biggest challenge for farmers today, even if they are interested, is financing. Are you pursuing USAID-FinGAP partnerships or other partnerships in order to help these farmers find finance?

In the beginning, we managed to secure an interest rate of about 24 percent. This was with John Deere finance support also available to help them get lower interest rates. We are also working quite closely with FinGAP. They look for areas where there is new financing and where there are people who want to invest money in Ghana. Recently, we partnered with Barclays Bank.  USAID is supporting lower interest, so we are able to get financing for bigger deals. The smaller buyer has a capacity of only about half a million Ghana cedis, where Barclays can go up to 5 or 6 million Ghana cedis without a problem.

What is the best interest rate you are able to secure in the end?

The best interest rate that we can get with the USAID together is about 18 percent.

Is it possible to appeal to an international agricultural organization to compete with these interest rate issues?

With the Ghana Bank, it is a problem. It will not be possible because of their rules and regulations. In South Africa for example, we have the Reserve Bank which uses its own interest rate. The repo is preventing us from getting a lower interest rate at this time.

Are there any events that you will be holding in the near future in different areas in Ghana to raise awareness for these farmers?

We go around Ghana once a year. Then, for about two months every year, we have a road show where we train two to three hundred people on basic training, servicing, and how to look after the equipment. We also demonstrate how to use the equipment. The lifetime for most tractors in Ghana is about five years, but a tractor’s lifetime can be anywhere from 15 to 20 years. We want to educate the farmers to care for their equipment so that it can last longer.

What are model farms?

This year, we established model farms. We wanted to create a model and show farmers that with the correct mechanisation, they can use the same input cost to get better crops. We normally yield 1.5 to 2 tons per hectare. With our model farms, we are able to get up to 7 to 8 tons per hectare of crop.

Where do you see AFGRI Ghana in the medium term? How would you like it to be by the end of 2019?

We would like to continue to be the top supplier of equipment in Ghana. We want to achieve the same measures and have higher standards to help our customers.

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