Feed Africa Summit: African Development Bank plans to invest $10 billion to make the continent the breadbasket of the world | African Development Bank

African Development Bank Group plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food supplier for itself and the rest of the world, so made dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the Bank Group, known in Dakar on Wednesday. 2 Africa Food Summit in Diamniadio, east of the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Adesina called on more than 34 heads of state, 70 ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners and business leaders to craft pacts that would bring about food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa. He encouraged them to take collective action to unlock the continent’s agricultural potential and become a global breadbasket.

The Dakar 2 summit – under the theme Feed Africa: food sovereignty and resilience—takes place amid supply chain disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More than a thousand delegates and dignitaries attended, including the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

The government of Senegal and the African Development Bank Group are co-hosting the summit, eight years after the inaugural Dakar 1 summit where newly elected Adesina announced the bank’s Feed Africa strategy.

President Sall, who also chairs the African Union, opened the summit saying it was time for the continent to feed itself by adding value and stepping up the use of technology.

Sall said, “From farm to fork, we need complete food sovereignty, and we need to increase land under cultivation and market access to promote cross-border trade.”

African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said the Dakar summit was timely and would provide innovative solutions to help Africa become less dependent on food imports.

“Food sovereignty should be our new weapon of freedom,” Mahamat told the gathering. He urged development partners to work together within existing structures, such as Agenda 2063 and the free trade zone on the African continent, for sustainable transformation.

Mahamat praised the African Development Bank for rolling out transformative initiatives, including a $1.5 billion food production facility by 2022 to help African countries avert a potential post-Russian war food crisis in Ukraine.

Kenya’s President William Ruto said: “It’s a shame that 60 years after independence we are gathered to talk about feeding ourselves. We can and must do better.”

The head of the African Development Bank Group said: “Today, more than 283 million Africans go to bed hungry every day. This is not acceptable. No mother should ever have to struggle with the rumbling of a hungry child’s stomach.”

“We have to raise the bar. We must increase our ambition. We need to stand up and say to ourselves, it’s time to feed Africa. The timing is right, and the moment is now. FeedAfrica; we have to,” said Adesina.

The head of the bank urged leaders to translate political will into decisive action to achieve food security for Africa. And we need to view agriculture as a business, not a development activity, and increase support to the private sector.”

President Higgins of Ireland said Africa’s young population accounts for about 20% of the world’s young people and that the continent has great potential. He said the rest of the world would look up to it in the future.

“Let’s make this century Africa’s century, a century in which the continent will become hunger-free,” Higgins said.

In his message to the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged that Africa is currently facing the challenges of climate change and food insecurity, as the war between Russia and Ukraine had caused the price of fertilizers to skyrocket and the made supply difficult.

He pledged the UN’s support to help Africa become a global food powerhouse.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said countries should provide more robust support to farmers, devote part of the national budget to agriculture and motivate youth and women to farm.

Buhari said, “Feeding Africa is absolutely necessary. We need to make sure we feed ourselves today, tomorrow and well into the future.”

The Nigerian President praised Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank for rolling out special agro-industrial processing zones across the continent, including in Nigeria.

He said: “Dedicated agro-industrial processing zones are game changers for the structural development of the agricultural sectors. They will help us generate wealth, develop integrated infrastructure around special agricultural processing zones and add value.”

During the three-day summit, private sector players are expected to commit to national food and agriculture supply pacts to guide policy, implement structural reforms and attract private sector investment.

Central bank governors and finance ministers are expected to develop financing arrangements to implement the food and agriculture supply pacts, in collaboration with agriculture ministers, private sector players, commercial banks, financial institutions and multilateral partners and organizations

Click here for the photos and videos of the opening of the summit

Click here for the full speech by Dr. Adesina