AfDB Commits to Africa's Food Security Drive

AfDB Commits to Africa’s Food Security Drive

By Chinomso Momoh
January 27, 2023

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has promised to commit ten billion dollars over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food provider for itself and the rest of the world.

Development Diaries reports that the AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, made the announcement on Wednesday at the Dakar Africa Food Summit in Diamniadio.

During the summit, the AfDB president called on more than 34 heads of state, 70 government ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners, and corporate executives to work out compacts that would deliver food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa.

SDG Two: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

He encouraged them to take collective action to unlock the continent’s agricultural potential to become a global breadbasket.

‘Today over 283 million Africans go to bed hungry every day. This is not acceptable. No mother should ever have to struggle with rumbling of the stomach of a hungry child’, he said.

‘We must raise the bar. We must raise our ambition. We must arise and say to ourselves: it is time to feed Africa. The timing is right, and the moment is now. Feed Africa; we must’.

He further urged the leaders to turn political will into decisive actions to deliver food security for Africa.

‘We must strongly support farmers, especially smallholder farmers, majority of whom are women, and get more young people into agriculture’, he added.

‘And we must take agriculture as a business, not a development activity, and boost support to the private sector’.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was also in attendance, said countries must offer more robust support for farmers, dedicate a chunk of the national budget to agriculture, and motivate youth and women to farm.