GENERAL.

British International Investment (BII) has committed $26.5 million to AFEX, Africa's leading commodities platform, to support improvements in Africa's agricultural industry. The investment will be used to build 20 modern warehouses in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, providing storage capacity for up to 200,000 more farmers. The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the OCP Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance food security and promote employment and farmers' livelihoods. The Agricultural Development Support Fund (FADA) in Angola has received funding to provide financial resources to community funds within agricultural cooperatives and associations. Ethiopia's Amhara region is struggling to contain quelea birds that are destroying crops, and the Ministry of Agriculture has signed an MoU with South Korea's Institute for Advancement of Technology to work on agricultural mechanization. The Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia has also distributed vehicles and laboratory equipment to strengthen the agricultural sector. In Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo has called on banks to offer cheaper and longer-term loans to the agricultural sector to boost economic growth. In Morocco, an urgent program has been launched to reconstruct and rehabilitate agricultural activities in regions affected by a seismic event. The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism will provide support to distribute fertilizers to smallholder farmers in Mozambique, and the United States Agency for International [Extracted from the article]