The regional, four-year (2008-2012) Agribusiness & Trade Promotion (ATP) and three year (2009-2012) Expanded Agribusiness & Trade Promotion (E-ATP) projects are funded by the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/ West Africa.  Their purpose is to increase the value and volume of intra-regional trade in West African staple foods, as a way of improving the quality and availability of food, reducing poverty by raising household incomes, and enhancing economic opportunities in the region.

The projects use a value chain approach, working on a number of aspects along the chain of production-to-consumption in six select commodities.  ATP concentrates on ruminant livestock/red meat, maize (corn), and onion/shallots; and E-ATP, on rice, poultry, and millet/sorghum.  In addition to working with growers or breeders and their professional organizations, the projects work with agro-input dealers, wholesalers and cross-border traders, shippers, packagers, storage facilities, financiers and public officials.  Moreover, each project has a grants facility, a gender mainstreaming focus, and opportunities for public-private partnerships.

ATP and E-ATP collaborate with other regional initiatives also aimed at improving the social and economic well-being of people in West Africa, with a focus on land-locked Burkina Faso and Mali in the Sahelian region, and Senegal, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria in the coastal region.  The projects’ administrative offices are in Accra, Ghana, and their technical offices are in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. They maintain a satellite office in Kano, Nigeria, and market facilitators in Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and Cotonou, Benin.