Africa needs investments, not aid – AfDB

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has
explained that Africa does not need aid but disciplined investments to
enable the continent to cope with problems of malnutrition and food
insecurity which are threat to global development.

 

AfDB reported that over 800 million
people worldwide are suffering from hunger and more than two billion
affected by malnutrition and food insecurity.

 

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of AfDB, told a crowd of global agriculture experts at the FAO headquarters in Rome.

 

According to Adesina the time has come to
view investment and development opportunities in Africa through a
totally different lens.

 

Adesina, who is making a global pitch for
renewed visionary leadership and strategic alliances, “the future of
food in the world will depend on what Africa does with Agriculture.”

 

The African Development Bank, which he
leads, envisions a food secure continent which uses advanced
technologies, creatively adapts to climate change, and develops a whole
new generation of what he describes as ‘agripreneurs’
– empowered youth and women who he expects to take agriculture to the
next level.   

 

By 2050, an additional 38 million African will be hungry.

 

The paradox of lack in the midst of
plenty, and Africa’s growing youth bulge are some of the reasons why
Adesina’s sense of urgency is resonating with numerous government,
private sector, and multilateral leaders during recent
European and Asian trips.

 

 The banker and 2017 World
Food Prize Laureate will be the first to admit that he considers himself
the ‘evangelist-in-chief’ for a food secure Africa.

 

Africa continues to import what it should
be producing, spending $35 billion on food imports each year, a figure
that is expected to rise to $110 billion in 2025 if present trends
continue.

 

A few days later, Adesina joined
Rockefeller Foundation President Raj Shah, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, and
2018 World Food Prize nominees Lawrence Haddad and David Navarro, among
other prominent global academic, development, and
agriculture experts at Wageningen University and Research, in the
Netherlands, to make the case for urgent collective action by State and
non-State players to accelerate Africa’s agricultural growth and
transformation.

 

Africa receives only 2 per cent of the
$100 billion annual revenues from chocolates globally. Adesina tells his
audience that “adding value to what nations produce, is the secret to
their wealth. Producing chocolate instead of
simply exporting cocoa beans does not require rocket science.”

 

Africa is doing better than some of the Asian countries

 

To expand opportunities for youth, women,
and private sector players, Adesina is on a global mission to promote
and seek support for the bank’s 
Affirmative Finance for Women in Africa (AFAWA) program which
aims to mobilize $3 billion to support women entrepreneurs who
historically lack access to finance, land, and land titles; a $300
million ENABLE Youth program to develop the next generation
of agribusiness and commercial farmers for Africa; and a new global
investment marketplace, the African Investment Forum, which will be held
in Johannesburg November 7-9.

 

In separate meetings with Sigrid A.M.
Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, in the
Hague; Peter van Mierlo, CEO of the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development
Bank (FMO), key private sector players, and members
of the Dutch Foreign Affairs Advisory Council, Adesina said Africa and
its partners must seize unprecedented opportunities for innovative
partnerships and increased development impact.

 

Mierlo believes, “a huge benefit for
Africa is that it can skip development cycles that often almost all
developed countries had to go through, by deploying new technologies
such as artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture”.

 

In a continent where more than 640
million are without electricity, Adesina says the private sector is key
to Africa’s development in Africa’s energy and agriculture sectors.

 

“If Africa is going to turn the tide of
irregular migration, this is critical. There are three ways in which we
can collaborate: either through the NEPAD Infrastructure Project
Preparation Facility, Africa 50 – a private equity
institution which has raised more than US$ 850 million from 22
countries, and the new Africa Investment Forum.”

 

Adesina, recognizes that the lack of
electricity is Africa’s biggest development impediment. The Bank’s new
and ambitious Desert-to-Power initiative which aims to generate 10,000MW
of power across Africa’s Sahel region will be
critical to reducing migration and climate change impacts. We will do
this through a blended finance mechanism with guarantees”, Mr. Adesina
said.

 

Speaking to a High-level Roundtable of
Dutch Business Leaders at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), he
informed key private sector leaders that “governance structures and
business regulatory environments are changing in
Africa.

 

Indeed, several African countries have
already made significant progress in improving their general business
and investment environments. Africa is doing better than some of the
Asian countries,” he reminded his audience.

 

 “In the energy sector, the
African Development Bank is investing $12 billion over the next 5 years,
with the goal of leveraging $40-50 billion; and an additional $US 24
billion, over ten
years, in agriculture to implement its Feed Africa Strategy.”

 

The strategy is already bearing fruit
with the establishment of Staple Crop Processing Zones in several
African countries, including Ethiopia, Togo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, and Mozambique, with a plan to reach 15 countries
in a few years.

 

Strategically located in and around rural
farming communities Adesina says “these agriculture zones will form the
nucleus of a new wave of agro-industries and greenfield ventures,
attracting agripreneurs, biotechnology firms,
intellectual and capital investments. They will also ensure that foods
are processed and packaged right where they are produced, rather than in
urban centers far removed from centers of production.”

 

Described as a visionary optimist by many
colleagues, Adesina believes the bank’s policies and investments will
help turn rural areas from zones of economic misery into zones of
economic prosperity.