By Mike Aladenika.
President Mohammadu Buhari departs Lagos for Senegal where he is expected to join no fewer than 20 African Heads of State and other private investors at the 2nd edition of Dakar International Conference on Agriculture.
The high-level Dakar-2 Summit hosted by President Macky Sall of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union is holding under the theme “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience.”
The conference, which seeks to create favourable conditions toward achieving food security in Africa, is convened jointly by the government of Senegal and Africa Development Bank Group.
There will also be side meetings to discuss agreements on the delivery of food and agricultural products in some countries, including Nigeria.
With Africa accounting for 249m or 1/3 of 828m hungry people in the world, the Summit, to be attended by African Heads of State & Govt, Ministers of Finance & Agric, as well as global development partners, is expected to make commitments on eradicating hunger in Africa by 2030.
The confab, with the theme, ‘Feeding Africa: Food Security and Resilience’, organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group lays out action-driven discourse on how heads of state would mobilise government resources and leverage development partners and private sector financing to harness Africa’s food and agriculture potential and turn advocacy efforts into concrete actions.
During the three-day summit, key stakeholders, including political leaders, development partners and private sector investors, will come together to mobilise much-needed resources to bridge financing need in the continent’s food value chain.
According to the summit document, the objectives include mobilising high-level political commitment, development partner support and private sector investment around production, markets and trade to increase food production in Africa, sharing successful food and agriculture experiences in selected countries and galvanising national governments, development partners, as well as the private sector around food and agriculture delivery.
Developing necessary infrastructure and logistics with special agro-industrial processing zones to build markets and competitive food/agriculture value chains is another strategic objective of the meeting.
At the summit, private sector actors will be expected to commit to the development of critical value chains, AfDB said in the event document. It added that central bank governors and ministers of finance will bear the task of developing financing arrangements to implement food and agriculture delivery compacts, working with ministers of agriculture, as well as private sector players. Commercial banks and other financial institutions are considered critical parts of the private sector participants.
Africa Development bank also stated that “Globally, 828 million people suffer from hunger, with Africa accounting for 249 million or a third of that number. The irony is that Africa alone, with 65 per cent of the remaining arable land, has the potential to feed nine billion people in the world by 2050. Its vast savanna areas alone are estimated at 400 million hectares, of which only 10 per cent is cultivated.
“With the removal of barriers to agricultural development aided by new investments, Africa’s agricultural output could increase from $280 billion per year to $1 trillion by 2030. Investing in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, climate-smart agricultural systems, with private sector investments all along the food value chain can help transform Africa into a breadbasket for the world.”
President Mohammadu Buhari’s delegation is made up of Ministers and top government officials which include the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Muhd Mahmood; National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno & the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, among others.
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