A mission was fielded in Nigeria to identify the priority needs to be addressed by  AMIS’ upcoming support proposal. Key stakeholders as well as international partners involved in statistical support convened at federal level in Niger and Kaduna. The project aims to improve market transparency in Nigeria by scaling up efforts to produce quality statistics and data on crop forecasts, market food prices and stocks for the four AMIS core commodities (maize, rice, soybean and wheat).

In particular, nearly 25 representatives from the Federal Government (Ministry of Agriculture and the National Bureau of Statistics), private sector, FEWSNET met in Abuja to exchange views with FAO and AMIS’ staff on the AMIS’ project in Nigeria. The FAO team explained the scope of the project, the objectives and synergies with other on-going initiatives. Participants contributed by sharing their experience in similar initiatives, defining relevant success factors, identifying barriers and suitable funding mechanisms and highlighted lessons learned on the sustainability of the AMIS program in Nigeria.

Other useful meetings with the State Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture, the private sector (Bank of Agriculture) and the research Institute the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS).were held in Kaduna and Niger.

Finally, these consultations also contribute to the finalization of the AMIS Nigeria Data Assessment Report, which records all relevant data sources and discusses the various issues into s data quality. This assessment report is critical for AMIS’ support proposal.