The African Development Bank has disclosed that Africa’s business-to-business expenditure will reach $3.5trillion by 2025, if developing nations in the continent attract more investors to help unlock agriculture potentials.
The President, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, explained that if there was increased American and global investments in the agricultural sector across Africa, the continent’s agriculture would be boosted beyond stakeholders’ imaginations.
Adesina said, “I do not seek aid for Africa. I seek investments in Africa. For too long, agriculture has been associated with what I call the three Ps – pain, penury, and poverty. The fact though is that, agriculture is a huge wealth-creating sector that is primed to unleash new economic opportunities that will lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”
He appealed to the United States’ private sector to fundamentally change the way it views African agriculture.
“Think about it, the size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will rise to $1trillion by 2030. This is the time for U.S. agri-businesses to invest in Africa.
‘’And for good reason: Think of a continent where McKinsey projects household consumption is expected to reach nearly $2.1trillion, and business-to-business expenditure will reach $3.5trillion by 2025. Think of a continent brimming with 840 million youth, the youngest population in the world, by
2050.”
The U.S government was also urged to be at the fore of efforts to encourage fertilizer and seed companies, manufacturers of tractors and equipment, irrigation and ICT farm analytics to ramp up investments on the
continent.
“As the nation that first inspired me and then welcomed me with open arms, permit me to say that I am here to seek a partnership with America; a genuine partnership to help transform agriculture in Africa. And by so doing, unlock the full potential of agriculture in Africa, unleash the creation of wealth that will lift millions out of poverty in Africa, while creating wealth and jobs back home right here in America,” the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate told the Forum.
