Read in
Africa’s food producing opportunity is a trillion-dollar business – but realising this wealth will require specific interventions, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina told the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco, on 8 November.
Launching the private sector-focused Alliance for Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) project at the event, Adesina said Africa has a comparative advantage in agriculture – and yet the continent is held hostage to food security crises due to low production at home and disruptions globally. “We need to think about and invest differently in agriculture. Despite many successes in food production, 283m Africans still go hungry every year. It is time for us to think big.”
Ending the export of raw agricultural commodities is the fastest way to end poverty, he said. “That is where wealth lies. We need support to raise production and scale efficiencies.” Currently, Africa processes about 10 percent of its production. “This is why economic processing zones are so important. They provide critical infrastructure to support development and enable the establishment of food processing companies.”
The zones are designed to achieve both structural transformation and rural development through agro industrialisation. The Bank has already invested $853m to develop more than 20 SAPZs and mobilised more than $661m from Bank partners such as the Islamic Bank, IFAD, the Arab Bank and the European Investment Bank.