AFDB President, Adewunmi Adesina
KOREDE FOGO
The African Development Bank Group (AFDB), has said that the decision by President Bola Tinubu led administration to allow massive food importation into the country could destroy the country’s agriculture.
This follows the announcement by Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, on 10th July, that the federal government would suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders, for 150 days.
“Nigeria’s recently announced policy to open its borders for massive food imports, just to tackle short-term food price hikes, is depressing,” Mr Adesina told African Primates of the Anglican Church at a Retreat in Abuja, Nigeria, on Friday.
He warned that the policy could undermine all the hard work and private investments that have gone into Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilise prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilise food prices while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending that will further help stabilise the Naira,” said the African Development Bank president.
“Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity,” he said, “Nigeria must not be turned into a food import-dependent nation.”
Speaking on the theme ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church,’ Mr Adesina said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”
Adesina said Africa has 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. Therefore, what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. “Essentially, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030.”
Transformational Strides
Adesina briefed the Primates on the Bank’s $25 billion programme to transform agriculture by providing high-performing agricultural technologies for 40 million farmers and making Africa food self-sufficient by 2030.
He shared the Bank’s successes in helping member countries tackle the negative effects of climate change, through financial investments and its flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme.
According to the Bank president, TAAT has helped Ethiopia to become a net exporter of wheat within five years, and it has significantly increased Sudan’s wheat production, as well as supported countries in Eastern and Southern Africa to continue producing food in the face of a prolonged drought.
For 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 establishment of Special Agricultural Processing Zones, which will allow private agribusinesses to establish industries that process and add value to agricultural commodities.”
In addition, the Bank provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help drive down food price inflation by significantly boosting the local production of wheat and cassava under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme.
Mr Adesina urged the Nigerian government to take advantage of the Bank’s investments and support for African farmers, show greater determination and commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency, and to incentivise private-sector agribusinesses.
To support Africa’s ambitions to move up the 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 mobilised so far.