President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, says Africans will not go hungry for a lack of food to buy in 2022 as a result of the ongoing Russian –Ukraine war.
Speaking during a pre-opening media briefing of the AfDB Annual Meeting in Accra, Ghana, Adesina based his conviction that there won’t be a food crisis in 2022, on the fact that the continent was able to quickly bounce back from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
He said with adequate and effective planning, Africa will avert any looming food crisis. He cited the bank’s emergency response in tackling the pandemic impact as an example.
He noted that the bank’s $10billion Covid- 19 response fund to support African countries helped accelerated growth as Africa’s GDP rebounded from its lowest in 20years to positive in 2022.
“The Russian- Ukraine war has led to new challenges in addition to existing challenges of climate change impact and Covid but we are not deterred by the challenges,” he said.
“We have set up a $1.5billion emergency intervention fund to ensure we do not experience a looming food crisis,” he further said.
“Africa will not have a food crisis,” he added. He said the country ought not to be begging for food but to produce its food.
According to him, despite the global disruption in the food supply chain arising from the Russia-Ukraine war that has left Africa with at least a 30 million metric tons short of food, especially in wheat, maize and soybeans imported from the black sea region, with access to quality seeds and inputs as well as fertilisers, farmers across African countries, the food crisis will be averted on the continent.
“I am not scared of a food crisis,” he said, citing a similar experience when he was the agricultural minister in Nigeria when he believed that the country would not experience a food crisis.
He said Africa just needs to come up with a good plan to avert the current looming food crisis.
As a result of coming up with an effective plan, he says AfDB has responded with the launch of the African Emergency Food Production Facility that will provide 20 million African smallholder farmers with certified seeds, increase farmers’ access to fertilizers and enable them to rapidly-produce 38 million tons of food that will be valued at $12billion in two years.
On climate change, he said Africa is committed to reducing its carbon emissions through energy transmissions and that AfDB is spearheading investments in renewable energy.
Speaking about Nigeria, the AfDB president said Africa’s biggest economy is a priority to the bank. He urged the Nigerian government to re-introduce the e-wallet system –a technology he introduced while he was the country’s minister of agriculture, to ensure effective distribution of fertilizers and seeds to Nigeria’s smallholder farmers.
“We need to go back to reintroduce the electronic system to supply seeds and fertilisers to farmers,” he said when answering questions on what the bank is doing to support the country.
He said the bank had invested $540 million in special agro-industrial zones in seven states in the country.
