Argus Fertilizer Africa Conference

Jacques de Villiers

Executive: Manufacturing, Operations & Supply Chain, Omnia Holdings

Jacques joined Omnia in 2001 as a mechanical engineer in Sasolburg. He was later transferred to Rustenburg to serve as Technical Manager on the Phosphoric acid plant. In 2006, he joined the Omnia Group Projects team and acted as Project Manager for the construction of the Nitrates complex at Sasolburg. In 2015 he was appointed as General Manager: Supply Chain for Fertilizer.

Innocent Okuku

CEO & Director General, AFIDA

Dr Innocent Okuku is the Director General and CEO of the Africa Fertiliser Industry Development Association (AFIDA). AFIDA brings together fertiliser industry actors across Africa, including manufacturers, traders, distributors, retailers and national and regional fertiliser industry associations. He has over 35yr of experience in the agricultural industry, including 15yr in the fertiliser industry. His experience covers research, development and commercial positions in both public and private organisations. His previous roles include Vice President and Executive Secretary of the West African Fertiliser Association (WAFA), and Group Head of Commercial Services at Notore Chemical Industries PLC. At Notore, he was responsible for global business development, marketing and sales. He has experience in developing and running public-private partnerships to deploy farm inputs and technologies to increase farm yields across Africa. He holds a doctorate in Crop Production and is an alumnus of London Business School.

Patrick Heffer

Deputy Director General, IFA

Patrick Heffer joined the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) in Paris in 2002, where he is Senior Director of the Agriculture Service. In this capacity, he coordinates IFA’s global activities relating to fertilizer consumption. In addition, at the regional level, Patrick leads IFA’s Africa programme. More specifically, his duties focus on agronomic, market and policy issues that relate to fertilizer and nutrient management in a global context. Before joining IFA, Patrick spent 15 years with the seed industry, including five years in Switzerland at the joint secretariat of the International Seed Trade Federation and International Association of Plant Breeders (FIS/ASSINSEL), advancing to the position of Deputy Secretary General before his departure, and two years in Rome with the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He has also worked at GNIS (French parastatal seed organization) in Poitiers, France and at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Rabat, Morocco.

Sebastian Nduva

Lead AfricaFertilizer, AFIDA

Sebastian is a fertilizer market specialist with a special focus on sub-Saharan African fertilizer market systems. He is currently the AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) programme lead. The AFO initiative collects, processes and publishes fertilizer-sector statistics for key fertilizer markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Jonathan Atkinson

Managing Director, Southern Africa, Solidaridad

Asseta Diallo

Senior Specialist, Soil Health and Integrated Management, AGRA

Asséta Diallo is an agricultural economist with over 25 years of experience in the agriculture sector, specializing in agricultural value chains, input market development, and the implementation of soil health technologies across West, East, and Southern Africa.
She has worked extensively with the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), where she contributed to the development of agricultural clusters around value chains and supported the harmonization of fertilizer regulations under ECOWAS. Her work has focused on strengthening fertilizer systems—both organic and mineral—by promoting sustainable input delivery mechanisms for smallholder farmers and advancing soil health and fertilizer-related policy reforms across Africa.
Dr. Diallo currently serves as Senior Specialist, Soil Health and Integrated Soil Fertility Management within the Climate Adaptation, Sustainable Agriculture, and Resilience Directorate at AGRA. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and is the author and co-author of several publications on agricultural development and soil management in Africa.

Oliver Hatfield

VP Fertilizers, Argus

Oliver Hatfield is the VP of Fertilizers for Argus Media in London. Oliver joined Argus in October 2018 following its acquisition of Integer Research, where he was head of the fertilizer market research team and one of the company’s founders. He has more than 20 years of experience in business analysis and consulting.

Oliver is currently leading business development across Argus’ global nitrogen, phosphates and potash businesses, and driving the development of the company’s business in clean ammonia and specialty fertilizers. He is a regular speaker at industry events and is a graduate of economics and development economics from the University of Manchester in the UK.

Matt Miller

Director of Engineering, iSDA

Dr Matt Miller is Director of Engineering at iSDA, where he leads the development of digital tools that combine geospatial data, machine learning and agronomy to help smallholder farmers make more profitable and sustainable decisions. He began his career in academic research on improving crop productivity under environmental change, before moving into data science and software engineering in agritech. At iSDA, he has helped develop iSDAsoil, Africa’s first soil map at 30 m resolution, and Virtual Agronomist, which delivered tailored advice for over one million smallholder plots across sub-Saharan Africa in 2026. Matt holds a PhD in Plant Sciences from the University of Manchester