Ouagadougou: The President of the African Development Bank Group, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the world is in great need of leaders who are resolutely committed and focused on ‘strategic solutions’ and ‘transformational changes “.
‘Proposing solutions for agriculture in Africa, Mr. Adesina said the world desperately needs ‘visionary and passionate leaders who are strategic solution providers and agents of transformational change,’ the AfDB boss said. , cited by its communications services.
Invited by religious circles to speak on food security and financial sustainability in Africa, Mr. Adesina briefed his guests on the AfDB’s $25 billion program aimed at transforming African agriculture by providing highly advanced agricultural technologies. to 40 million farmers and making Africa self-sufficient in food by 2030.
He recalled that the AfDB’s flagship program on the subject, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, helped Ethiopia become a net exporter of wheat within five yea
rs and enabled to significantly increase wheat production in Sudan among others.
Regarding Nigeria, Mr. Adesina said: ‘Together with the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, we have provided $520 million to support the creation of special agro-industrial processing zones that will enable agro-businesses to private industrial companies to establish industries that process and add value to agricultural products.’
The Bank further provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help reduce food price inflation, by significantly increasing local production of wheat and cassava, in the framework of the National Agricultural Growth Program.
Mr. Adesina urged the Nigerian government to leverage the Bank’s investments and support to African farmers; to demonstrate greater determination and commitment to achieve food self-sufficiency, and put in place incentive measures for private sector agro-industrial companies.
To support Africa’s ambitions to adva
nce in global agricultural value chains, the African Development Bank Group and its partners are supporting the development of 28 Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in 11 countries, with $4.5 billion raised so far.
Prior to the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina served as Minister in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria and Vice-President of the Alliance for Green Agriculture in Africa (AGRA). An Afro-optimist, he predicts that Africa will be the pivot of the world.
Source: Burkina Information Agency