The President of the African Development Bank Group Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said the Nigerian government’s decision to allow massive food importation could destroy the country’s agriculture.
This follows the announcement by Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture Abubakar Kyari on July 10, that the Federal Government would suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders, for 150 days.
A statement published on the AFDB’s X account on Sunday said Adesina made the statement while addressing African Primates of the Anglican Church at a Retreat in Abuja, on the theme ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church.’
“Nigeria’s recently announced policy to open its borders for massive food imports, just to tackle short-term food price hikes, is depressing,” he said.
He warned that the policy could undermine all the hard work and private investments, that have gone into Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilise prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilise food prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending, which will further help stabilise the Naira,” said the African Development Bank president.
“Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity,” he said, “Nigeria must not be turned into a food import-dependent nation.”
Adesina said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”
Noting that Africa accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million people worldwide who are hungry, the African Development Bank president said agriculture is critical for the diversification of economies, and for the transformation of rural areas, where over 70 per cent of the population of Africa live.
“It is clear therefore that unless we transform agriculture, Africa cannot eliminate poverty,” he insisted.
Adesina said Africa has 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. Therefore, what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world.
“Essentially, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030,” he said.
Adesina briefed the primates on the Bank’s $25 billion program to transform agriculture, by providing high-performing agricultural technologies for 40 million farmers and making Africa food self-sufficient by 2030.
He shared the Bank’s successes in helping member countries tackle the negative effects of climate change, through financial investments and its flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program.
According to the Bank president, TAAT has helped Ethiopia to become a net exporter of wheat within five years, and it has significantly increased Sudan’s wheat production, as well as supported countries in Eastern and Southern Africa to continue producing food in the face of a prolonged drought.
For Nigeria, 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 Agricultural Processing Zones, which will allow private agribusinesses to establish industries that process and add value to agricultural commodities.”
In addition, the bank said it provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help drive down food price inflation, by significantly boosting the local production of wheat, and cassava, under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme.
Adesina urged the Nigerian government to take advantage of the bank’s investments and support for African farmers; show greater determination and commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency, and incentivise private-sector agribusinesses.