Nuradin Osman, MD, Africa & Middle East for AGCO ( Massey Ferguson) to speak at the 5th UK Uganda Investment Convention
Mr. Nuradin Osman, Managing Director, Africa and Middle East for AGCO Corporation joined AGCO in 2005.
Since 2011 he has been leading sales and marketing for the African and Middle Eastern market. In 2013 Mr. Osman was recognized for his leadership talent and awarded the Tutu and Oxford University Fellowship Award to Young African leader – class 2013.
Initially, Mr. Osman was based at the Massey Ferguson Banner Lane Manufacturing facility in Coventry, United Kingdom. He was employed in a variety of sales support specialist roles, firstly assisting our UK and Ireland sales department before progressing into our marketing and parts sales functions. His responsibilities then increased when he joined the Africa, Middle East and Licensee Market department.
In October 2007 AGCO’s global talent initiative recognised that Mr. Osman’s background and unique skill set made him an ideal candidate to work in AGCO’s Headquarters in Duluth. In December 2007 he relocated to Georgia in the USA.
His first assignment was as Special Assistant to the Chairman and CEO,
and the Senior Staff. He was then promoted to the position of Global Inventory Director and became involved with gathering and consolidating market intelligence, although his responsibilities for the Chairman and Senior Staff continued.
Mr. Osman grew up in Holland and is fluent in Dutch, English and Somali. He is the first Managing Director of the Africa and Middle East Department to be descended from an African family.
About AGCO
AGCO offers a broad range of tractors, combines, sprayers, forage and tillage equipment, implements and hay tools and is the manufacturer of the popular Mersey Ferguson tractors.
Agco Targets Africa’s Agriculture Boom With $100 Million Plan
Agco Corp. (AGCO), the world’s third- largest farm-equipment maker, plans to invest $100 million in Africa over the next three years to capitalize on an agricultural boom and a shift to commercial farming.
The company, based in Duluth, Georgia, opened a $35 million parts warehouse in Johannesburg in May and on Aug. 17 signed a deal with Algeria Tractors Co. to build a plant to produce Massey Ferguson tractors, Nuradin Osman, Agco’s director for Africa and the Middle East, said in an interview on Nov. 13. Most of the future investment will come from existing funds, he said in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
“The only frontier left for arable land is in Africa,” he said. “We are in for the long-term in Africa. We’re coming here for 100 years and more.”
Africa has 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated land and investment in agriculture has the potential to create millions of jobs on the continent, according to the World Bank. About 10 percent of cropped land in Africa is prepared by tractor, and only 4 percent of land is irrigated, London-based Standard Chartered Plc said on its website. The continent has the potential to boost farm output to as much as $880 billion by 2030 from $280 billion in 2010, according to McKinsey & Co.
Agco’s African strategy is to build factories, set up model farms to demonstrate equipment and teach modern farming techniques, while working with banks including Rabobank International to boost credit to potential customers, he said. “Our solution is a one-stop shop where farmers can get access to everything they need to know in agriculture,” Osman said.
Land Leases
African governments are looking to increase productivity by mechanization as farming becomes more commercial, Osman said. Ethiopia for example has set aside 4 million hectares (10 million acres) for foreign agricultural investment while South African farmers have been offered land in Angola and Uganda.
About 60 percent of Agco’s African sales come from South Africa and Morocco, while Nigeria, Zambia and Mozambique are growth areas, Osman said. The company is planning to build smaller parts distribution warehouses costing as much as $15 million each in East and West Africa after it identifies their locations, he said.
Agco plans to produce 1,500 Massey Ferguson tractors at its Algerian factory next year and is targeting 5,000 of the machines annually by 2015, Philip de Leon, director of global trade relations at Agco, said in an interview yesterday.
Returns from the continent probably won’t exceed 10 percent in the next five years owing to the high cost of transport and logistics, Osman said.
Uganda’s agricultural sector objectives
Given the importance of the agricultural sector, the Government decided to set five key objectives to be achieved in five years between 2011 – 2015. These are:
- To increase income of the majority farming households targeting shs. 20million per family per year by increasing production and productivity through appropriate enterprise mix.
- To ensure household food and nutrition security by deliberately targeting specific crop and animal enterprises.
- To create on-farm and off-farm employment opportunities especially for the youth.
- To promote value addition to agricultural products as a way of minimizing post harvest loses and increasing shelf life; and
- To promote domestic and external trade in agricultural products.
Why invest in agriculture
The most important consideration for investing in agriculture in Uganda lies in its comparative advantages in a competitiveness world.
- It has unique agro-ecological location, lying astride the equator and have both tropical and temperate climate making it possible to raise a wide range of tropical and temperate crops and animals.
- There is rising demand in domestic, regional and international markets for agricultural commodities generally, and Uganda cannot afford to be left out of these markets.
- Specially, there is global demand for Food which offers an opportunity to grow more food staffs.
- Uganda is a member to bigger markets for which access is duty and quota free. For example, East African Community which covers Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi has over 125 million people; the COMESA region 19 counties has over 400 million people and European Union as well as the Middle East counties.
- NRM government has put in place and maintained sound macro and micro-economic frame work conducive for investment; such as liberalization, privatization, tax holidays and abolition of export taxes.
- There are also supportive Research Technology developments in the areas of planting and stocking materials for crops, livestock and fish, animal biotechnology exist.
- There is ample arable land, good for mechanization and with plenty of fresh water for irrigation when necessary. In most parts of Uganda there are two cropping seasons with a possibility of a 3rd crop in some places.
- Perhaps, one of most important factors for an investor is the availability in plenty of skilled and semi skilled labour.
Register to attend the 5th Ugandan UK Investment Forum: To exihibit: +447790 647 089
W: www.ugandanconventionuk.org
DATE:Saturday, 12 September 2015 | TIME: 09.30 – 19.00
VENUE:Troxy, 490 Commercial Rd, E1 0HX London UK
Ugandan UK Trade & Investment Forum
Tel: 07790 647089 | 0207 237 7317