(Quick News Africa)- The African Development Bank (AfDB) at the weekend said it is committed to investing $24 billion in agriculture in the next 10 years as part of its “Feed Africa” programme.
Akinwunmi Adesina, the bank’s president, said this in a speech he delivered at the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.
Adesina emphasized that the goal of the bank is to “ensure that Africa feeds itself within ten years, and unlocks the full potential of its agriculture,” said AfDB on Friday, July 28 in a post on its website.
“Feed Africa,” is AfDB’s strategy for agricultural development in the world’s second largest continent.
IITA, Africa’s leading agricultural research institute, hosted a series of events to celebrate 50 years of excellence in research, with many dignitaries in attendance from across the continent.
The institute recognized Adesina’s immense contributions to improving agriculture and named a newly constructed building after him.
The $700,000 Akinwumi Adesina Youth Agripreneurs Building is a new training facility for capacity development for youth agripreneurs funded by the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development and IITA.
The training facility comprises two major training rooms, each with the capacity to accommodate 50 trainees, as well as two big offices for 30 interns, and 20 standard sized offices.
“I am humbled, and deeply appreciative of the opportunity to lend my name to this well-equipped building which will be used by young agripreneurs to learn, set up and launch their own businesses, and create a prosperous living for themselves, their families and those they will employ,” Adesina said in a speech.
The AfDB president re-affirmed his conviction that the future millionaires and billionaires of Africa will emerge from the agricultural sector.
According to him, “Africa is today spending $35 billion a year importing food. That is $35 billion that should be kept on the continent, and this is a $35 billion market that young people can tap into to create new wealth each year.”
However, to do that, Adesina said, “requires totally changing the lenses with which we look at agriculture, stressing further that agriculture should no longer be seen as a way of life or a development sector, but rather as a business for wealth creation.”
