A Strategic Pivot Toward Financial Innovation in African Agriculture
Nakuru, Kenya – January 26, 2026 – In a decisive moment for African agricultural policy, Professor Andrew E. Temu has been appointed as the new Chair of the Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI), marking the beginning of a transformative era for the continent’s premier policy think tank network. His appointment signals a strategic pivot from traditional academic-led policy advocacy toward a paradigm anchored in development finance, private sector risk mitigation, and regulatory harmonization.
Prof. Temu, a distinguished agricultural economist from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania and former Chair of the Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) Trust, succeeds Dr. Damas Philip at a critical juncture—immediately following the Kampala Declaration of 2025 and the operational launch of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy for 2026–2035.
From Academia to Financial Architecture
Professor Temu brings a unique blend of scholarly rigor and practical financial innovation to ANAPRI’s leadership. Based in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at SUA, his research portfolio spans critical areas including intra-African trade, market policy interventions, and horticultural value chains. His 2016 paper on trading between East African Community member states provided early empirical evidence on non-tariff barriers that continue to challenge the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation.
However, it is his tenure as Chairman of the PASS Trust that most distinguishes his candidacy for this continental role. Under his stewardship, PASS pioneered a Credit Guarantee Fund model addressing Africa’s persistent “missing middle” problem—the financing gap that leaves growth-oriented smallholders and SMEs without access to productive capital.
“Commercial banks view agriculture as high-risk due to weather dependence and lack of collateral,” explains a sector analyst familiar with Temu’s work. “What PASS demonstrated under Prof. Temu’s leadership was that partial guarantees—typically 50-70%—coupled with business development services, could effectively de-risk agricultural lending and mobilize private capital at scale.”
Regulatory Leadership and Standards Harmonization
Complementing his financial expertise is Prof. Temu’s regulatory stewardship as Chair of the Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA) since August 2022. In a bold regulatory enforcement action coinciding with his ANAPRI appointment, the TPHPA withdrew registration for 675 formulated pesticide products that failed to meet renewal requirements.
This decisive action underscores a commitment to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) standards—often the primary non-tariff barrier to African agricultural exports. It demonstrates the kind of regulatory rigor that ANAPRI will need to champion as it supports the harmonization of standards across Regional Economic Communities to enable actual trade, not just policy aspirations.
The “Post-Malabo” Challenge
Prof. Temu assumes leadership as ANAPRI enters what it describes as the “Post-Malabo” era. The Malabo Declaration (2014–2025) focused heavily on production targets and budgetary allocations. The new Kampala Declaration fundamentally recalibrates this agenda, broadening the aperture to “Agrifood Systems” that explicitly link agriculture to nutrition, health, energy, and climate resilience.
The CAADP Strategy 2026–2035 outlines six strategic objectives: Productive and Market-oriented Agrifood Systems; Nutrition and Health; Investment and Financing for Agrifood Transformation; Trade and Market Development; Resilience and Sustainability; and Inclusive Social Protection. Each requires not just policy recommendations but bankable, investable, and scalable solutions.
“ANAPRI’s strategic reflection on 2025 described the year as one of ‘grounding and recalibration,’ prioritizing ‘substance over spectacle,’” notes a recent network assessment. “The selection of Prof. Temu signals ANAPRI’s evolution from a generator of academic papers into an architect of implementable solutions.”
A Coalition of Technical Excellence
Prof. Temu will lead a Board of Directors representing a sophisticated balance of geographic representation and technical specialization across ANAPRI’s member institutes:
Prof. Peter Quartey (Ghana), Finance Chairperson and Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, brings heavyweight development finance and macroeconomic expertise. His research on monetary policy, aid effectiveness, and SME finance positions him to lead ANAPRI’s resource mobilization strategy in a shrinking donor environment.
Mr. Salomo Mbai (Namibia), Director of the Agricultural Trade Policy Institute (ATPI) at Namibia University of Science and Technology, specializes in livestock value chains and export competitiveness. His dual role in academia and the Namibian Agronomic Board allows ANAPRI to test policy ideas against regulatory realities of cross-border commerce in Southern Africa.
Dr. Lilian Kirimi (Kenya), Senior Research Fellow at Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, brings deep expertise in household food security dynamics and climate adaptation. Her research on fertilizer subsidy targeting and climate-smart agriculture directly supports the “Inclusivity” and “Resilience” pillars of the Kampala Declaration.
Dr. Ndèye Fatou Faye (Senegal), representing Initiative Sénégalaise de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA-BAME), ensures Francophone West African perspectives are integral to strategy. Her focus on cereal value chains, technology adoption, and impact assessment connects ANAPRI to the Sahelian context and ECOWAS/UEMOA institutional architecture.
The Road Ahead: Four Strategic Frontiers
Analysts identify four thematic frontiers that will define the Temu era at ANAPRI:
1. The Financialization of Policy: Moving beyond calls for “more funding” to designing specific instruments—blended finance, credit guarantees, agricultural insurance—that unlock private capital for smallholders and agribusinesses.
2. Trade Facilitation via Harmonization: Leveraging Temu’s TPHPA experience to harmonize SPS regulations, seed certification, and pesticide standards across Regional Economic Communities, enabling real AfCFTA implementation.
3. The Soil Health Imperative: Following the 2024 Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit, providing hard economic evidence to navigate the tension between short-term political wins (fertilizer subsidies) and long-term soil health management.
4. Data Sovereignty and Digitalization: Ensuring that data guiding African agricultural policy is owned and managed by African institutions through platforms like the African Agriculture Adaptation Atlas and Africa Agriculture Watch (AAgWa).
A Leadership for Implementation
As Dr. Antony Chapoto, ANAPRI’s Executive Director, noted in the network’s recent strategic reflection, the “tightening funding” environment for global development research necessitates a shift toward financial sustainability and value-for-money propositions. Prof. Temu’s appointment represents precisely this evolution.
“The era of defining the ‘what’ is largely over,” observed a development finance specialist. “The CAADP Strategy 2026–2035 provides the roadmap. The challenge now is the ‘how’—specifically, how to finance the transition and how to regulate the markets. Prof. Temu is uniquely equipped for this moment.”
For a continent seeking to build resilient, sustainable agrifood systems while navigating climate volatility and global market uncertainties, the appointment of Professor Andrew E. Temu to lead ANAPRI marks not just a change in leadership, but a fundamental shift in how Africa approaches the architecture of agricultural transformation.
About ANAPRI
The Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI), formerly the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI), is a continental coalition of agricultural policy research institutes providing evidence-based policy guidance to African governments and development partners. The network operates through a Secretariat based in Lusaka, Zambia, led by Executive Director Dr. Antony Chapoto. Member institutes include ISSER (Ghana), Tegemeo Institute (Kenya), ATPI (Namibia), ISRA-BAME (Senegal), and BFAP (South Africa), among others.