Fertilizer Market Analyst – International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), Ethiopia

Background

AfricaFertilizer.org is an initiative led by IFDC, with support from partners such as DG, IFA, Argus, AFAP, FAO and IFPRI, aiming at collecting and disseminating fertilizer data, statistics, and information from Sub-Saharan Africa

Since 2010, AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) objective is to provide timely and transparent information on fertilizers to the public and private sector. AFO has evolved from aggregating and disseminating existing market information on fertilizers to expanding the types of information available and also providing support to partners, programs and activities that increase the availability and quality of this information. The initiative encourages and coordinates partnerships and data-sharing mechanisms that provide information on fertilizer statistics and fertilizer market intelligence.

AFO has been working with Development Gateway, DG, under the VIFAA program (Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture) to simplify and visualize fertilizer data to end-users through an interactive dashboard. The next expansion phase will run till 2024.

Objective

In this regard, AFO seeks to engage a Fertilizer market analyst for Ethiopia, who will serve as the key contact point for AFO activities covering market data and information compilation, reporting and partnership management.

Duties

The main tasks of the Fertilizer market analyst are to assist the AFO Project manager and in collaboration with the AFO team, to implement partly/wholly key activities such as:

Main activities/Deliverables:

• Primary Data synthesis:
  • Fertilizer statistics on trade (import and export figures), and consumption data production capacities in Ethiopia
  • Monitoring and reporting on national and regional fertilizer policy environments including national fertilizer laws; national subsidy programs; fertilizer quality regulations; and private sector participation.
  • Collect, analyze, and disseminate relevant fertilizer market information on tenders, policies, and regulations etc. within Ethiopia
  • Collection and reporting on fertilizer retail prices and market comments monthly for one of AFO’s monthly publication (FertiNews) including trade corridor product movement from Djibouti into Ethiopia
  • Developing fertilizer cost chain build ups and process maps for Ethiopia’s main trade corridors
  • Monitoring and analyzing Ethiopia fertilizer market dynamics including key players; national distribution channels and hubs; product availability; and national pricing mechanisms
  • Monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on trends in international fertilizer production; procurement; trade; and consumption (by product and key crops) and how it affects the fertilizer market in Ethiopia.

• Organizing and facilitation of the Ethiopia Fertilizer technical working group, (FTWG) statistics validation workshop within the month of August latest September 2022 (Report from one of the FTWG’s for reference)
• Building and strengthening/ managing partnerships with regional and national institutions, key industry partners, and stakeholders
• Identify possible fund-raising avenues for AFO when they do occur and communicating this to the Program team through the Program Lead and business development team
• All the above activities will result in the Ethiopia fertilizer dashboard. (Links to other country dashboards for reference herein Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria) Launch of the Ethiopia dashboard targeted for October/November.

Supervision

The Fertilizer market analyst will be supervised and report to the AFO Program manager or his designee.

Place of work

The Fertilizer market analyst will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but should be available to travel within the country and in Africa when called upon to.

• Bachelors’ degree in agriculture, agribusiness, economics, or any relevant fields. Masters is an added advantage.

• Relevant work experience of 4-5 years in data management and analysis. Fertilizer specific data management desirable.
• Good networks with both the Ministry officials (EABC, Agriculture/statistics etc.) as well as main private fertilizer companies.
• Good knowledge of Fertilizer market in Ethiopia , as well as the fertilizer trade corridor from Djibouti, is mandatory
• Excellent writing, reporting and oral communication skills with good English language proficiency.
• Must possess deductive reasoning skills and be able to analyze and synthesize information for problem solving.