The Dakar 2 Feed Africa Summit ended on Friday with a pledge of $30 billion by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and development partners to finance food and agribusiness on the continent over the next five years. Of the amount announced at the summit held in the Senegalese capital, the AfDB pledged to mobilize 10 billion dollars.
Leaders attending the event called on the African Union Commission and the AfDB to help mobilize more funds to complete the announced amount and report on overall investment at the African Union Summit in February.
Some 34 African heads of state and government, leaders of international and bilateral development organizations and the private sector attended the Summit, whose theme was “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience”.
food goal
Concerned that rising food prices and the disruption of the global food supply due to COVID-19, climate change and the war in Ukraine will worsen food insecurity in Africa, noting that the continent has 65% of The world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, with the potential to produce enough to feed its people and the rest of the world: Leaders proposed national food delivery and agriculture pacts to incorporate food targets into their development agenda.
Among the resolutions was the establishment of Presidential Delivery Councils to oversee the implementation of country-specific pacts and promote accountability.
AfDB President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said Africa’s agricultural sector will depend on strong political will and commitment from governments, development partners and the private sector and scaling up of high-impact continental programmes, as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation.
He emphasized the place of infrastructure in transforming rural areas into agricultural production and processing zones.
“Infrastructure is very important and Africa has a deficit of $68 billion to $108 billion per year. The African Development Bank has invested in the last six years $44 billion in infrastructure: from energy, roads, water, sanitation, digital infrastructure, transport corridors to one-stop border posts. But a lot of infrastructure in Africa is concentrated in urban areas, because the economic viability of infrastructure is low in rural areas, because their source of livelihood, agriculture, is not viable. But we have special agro-industrial processing zones. These are going to change the density of infrastructure in rural areas around agriculture, power water, roads, irrigation storage, logistics.
“It will make agricultural processing and value addition profitable, close to where food is produced. So you don’t need to move raw materials; they will move finished agricultural products.”
Agro-industrial processing zones
He said that the bank has invested in the last two years one billion dollars in 23 projects in special agro-industrial processing zones in 11 countries.
Participants sought support for agriculture-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have an unmet financing need of some US$100 billion annually.
The AfDB and the Government of Canada announced the Agro-SME Catalytic Financing Facility, a blended financing mechanism that is expected to de-risk investment in small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises and strengthen food systems across the continent.
With an initial contribution of $85 million from the Canadian government, the Facility will provide concessional financing and technical assistance to financial intermediaries, including agribusinesses, commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and impact funds.
The summit also saw the launch of Mission 1 for 200, a joint program of the AfDB and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to help 40 million African farmers produce 100 million tons of food for 200 million people. Mission 1 for 200 aims to build resilience by helping farmers adapt to climate change and reduce the environmental impact and emissions of agriculture.
