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Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank (AfDB).
The President of, the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has tasked the incoming administration to make agriculture a business sector. Akinwumi stated this while delivering his speech at the inaugural lecture for the new president of Nigeria on Saturday, May 27th, 2023, in Abuja. He also urged them to focus on fixing the country’s current insecurities bedevilling her economy against the backdrop of an industry amidst global challenging factors.
Speaking on inclusive development, he urged that Nigeria must completely revive its rural areas through agriculture transmission and reformation.
According to him, Nigeria’s rural areas have been forgotten and have become zones of economic misery, he, therefore, called to make agriculture a business and a work-creating sector. He however pledged readiness to help the new administration revamp agricultural institutions, and modernize the food and agriculture sector. “The AfDB is currently working with Central banks all across Africa to design and support the establishment of Youth entrepreneurship investment banks which will be run by young professionals, highly competent and expert bankers who will develop and deploy new financial products and services for businesses and ventures of young people.” “Several African countries have agreed to set up this initiative. Hence, there is a need for Nigeria to tap into this initiative”, Adesina said.
The AfDB boss added that Nigeria’s economy needs to soar and must shift away from just import substitution to export-focused industrialization as this will unlock the bottlenecks hampering 85 per cent of its economy. “The solution, therefore, is to unlock the bottlenecks that are hampering 85 per cent of the economy. These include; low productivity, poor infrastructure and logistics, epileptic power supply, and inadequate access to finance by SMEs. Nigeria must shift away from just import substitution to export-focused industrialization. This is how our economy can thrive”, Adesina said.
Recounting successes recorded by the bank, he said AfDB was ranked this year by Publish What You Fund as the “Most Transparent Institution in the World” and was ranked last year by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Global Development as the “Best Multilateral Development Bank in the World.