The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced it will invest US$24 billion in agriculture as part of its Feed Africa Programme- a strategy for agricultural development in Africa, Dr Akinwum Adesina, the Bank’s president has said.
In a speech Adesina delivered at the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, he said that the goal of the AfDB is to “ensure that Africa feeds itself within ten years, and unlocks the full potential of its agriculture.”
The AfDB boss re-affirmed his conviction that the future millionaires and billionaires of Africa will emerge from the agriculture sector. He said Africa is spending US$35 billion a year importing food, which money he said, should be kept on the continent.
“This is a US$35 billion market that young people can tap into to create new wealth each year. To do that requires totally changing the lenses with which we look at agriculture,” he said, adding that agriculture should now be seen as a business for wealth creation.
