Nigeria should produce more food to stabilise prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange costs.
LAGOS, Nigeria, July 15, 2024 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/-The President of the African Development Bank Group, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, said on Friday in Abuja that the Nigerian government’s decision to allow massive importation of food items risks destroying the country’s agriculture.
The statement comes following Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, announced on July 10 that the federal government would suspend duties, tariffs and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas at the country’s land and sea borders for 150 days.
“Nigeria’s recently announced policy(link is external) of opening its borders to massive food imports, just to combat food price hikes in the short term, is depressing,” Adesina said while speaking at a meeting of African primates of the Anglican Church in Abuja, Nigeria.
He warned that the policy might jeopardize all efforts and private investments made in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
“Nigeria cannot rely on food imports to stabilize prices. Nigeria should produce more food to stabilize prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange expenditure, which will further stabilize the Naira.” [la monnaie locale]continued the president of the African Development Bank.
“Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity. Nigeria must not become a nation dependent on food imports,” he insisted.
Mr Adesina, who was speaking at the meeting on the theme, “Food Security and Financial Sustainability in Africa: The Role of the Church,” said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning: “A nation that depends on others for food is independent in name only.”
Faith and Food Security
The clergy gathered in Abuja under the auspices of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), which represents more than 40 million Anglicans across the continent.
In his opening address, the host of the meeting, His Grace, the Most Reverend Henry C. Ndukuba, Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), said the gathering was a unique opportunity for African Anglican leaders to deepen bonds of friendship and collaboration and share collective wisdom and experiences.
The meeting’s chairman, Olugbemiro Jegede, a Nigerian professor emeritus of science education, told Mr Adesina: “The whole of Africa is represented here. Each primate represents a region. Behind these primates are millions and millions of Anglicans who are listening to what we are saying here.”
Noting that Africa accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million hungry people in the world, the African Development Bank President said agriculture is key to diversifying economies and transforming rural areas, where more than 70 percent of Africa’s population lives. “It is therefore clear that unless we transform agriculture, Africa will not be able to eradicate poverty,” he insisted.
Mr. Adesina said Africa has 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land that can feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. Therefore, what Africa does in agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. “Fundamentally, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030.”
Transformational advances
Mr. Adesina briefed the primates on the Bank’s $25 billion program aimed at transforming agriculture by providing high-performance agricultural technologies to 40 million farmers and making Africa food self-sufficient by 2030.
He shared the Bank’s successes in helping African countries combat the negative impacts of climate change through financial investments and its flagship program, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT).
The TAAT programme helped Ethiopia become a net wheat exporter within five years, Adesina said. It also significantly increased wheat production in Sudan and helped countries in eastern and southern Africa continue to produce food despite prolonged drought.
On 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 Agro-processing Zones that will enable private agro-industrial companies to establish industries that process and add value to agricultural products.”
The Bank also provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help reduce food price inflation by significantly increasing local production of wheat and cassava under the National Agricultural Growth Programme.
Mr. Adesina urged the Nigerian government to leverage the Bank’s investments and support to African farmers; demonstrate greater determination and commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency; and provide incentives for private sector agribusinesses.
To support Africa’s ambitions to move up 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 mobilized so far.
Speaking on behalf of the President of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa and Bishops of Northern Zambia, Most Reverend Albert Chama, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Most Reverend Jackson Ole Sapit, called for greater cooperation between the Bank Group and the Anglican Church.
“The African spirit must be at the centre of solving African problems. If the African Development Bank mobilizes resources for the African continent, and the Church also mobilizes resources for holistic transformation, we can achieve a lot by working together – and make a difference,” said Bishop Ole Sapit.
The Church as an Agent of Change
Proposing solutions for agriculture in Africa, Mr Adesina said the world desperately needed “visionary and passionate leaders who are strategic solution providers and transformational change makers.”
This includes, he said, public advocacy for robust government policies to end hunger and malnutrition, accompanied by church-run food banks and other social protection programmes for the poor and needy; investment in commercial farms, especially in rural areas; advocacy on climate change issues; supporting and encouraging young Africans to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship; and demanding greater financial accountability, public probity and better financial management from governments.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of the African Development Bank.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
2024-07-15 10:56:45
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