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Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, has expressed concerns that the Nigerian government’s decision to allow massive food importation could harm the country’s agriculture sector.
This follows an 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.
In a statement published on the AFDB’s X account on Sunday, Adesina addressed 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 the efforts and private investments made in Nigeria’s agriculture sector. “Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilize prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilize food prices, create jobs, and reduce foreign exchange spending, which will help stabilize the Naira,” said Adesina. “Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity. Nigeria must not become a food import-dependent nation.”
Adesina emphasized that Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” cautioning that “a nation that depends on others to feed itself is independent only in name.”
Highlighting that Africa accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million people worldwide who are hungry, Adesina stressed the importance of agriculture for economic diversification and rural transformation, where over 70 percent of Africa’s population lives. “Unless we transform agriculture, Africa cannot eliminate poverty,” he insisted.
Adesina noted that Africa possesses 65 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, which could feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. Therefore, what Africa does with agriculture will significantly impact the future of global food security. “Essentially, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030,” he said.
He briefed the primates on the Bank’s $25 billion program to transform agriculture by providing high-performing agricultural technologies to 40 million farmers and making Africa food self-sufficient by 2030. Adesina also shared the Bank’s successes in helping member countries tackle climate change through financial investments and its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program.
TAAT has enabled Ethiopia to become a net exporter of wheat within five years and significantly increased Sudan’s wheat production. It has also supported countries in Eastern and Southern Africa in continuing food production despite prolonged droughts.
For Nigeria, Adesina highlighted that, along with the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, $520 million has been provided to support the establishment of Special Agricultural Processing Zones, which will allow private agribusinesses to process and add value to agricultural commodities.
Additionally, the Bank provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help reduce food price inflation by boosting the local production of wheat and cassava under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme.
Adesina urged the Nigerian government to leverage the Bank’s investments and support for African farmers, show greater determination and commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency, and incentivize private-sector agribusinesses.
