Policy consistency critical to assure food security, says Adesina

…Challenges the Church on financial inclusion

Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), has said that policy consistency was critical to ensure food security in Nigeria, stating that the all too frequent policy reversals and politicisation of food production have hurt Nigeria.

Adesina stated this in an address tagged, ‘Food Security and Financial Stability: The Role of the Church’ during the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa Retreat July 12, 2024 Abuja, Nigeria.

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According to him, Nigerian youth must be encouraged and supported to take up agriculture as a business, in order to fully unleash the power of the agricultural sector to achieve food security. He stated further that as a minister of agriculture in Nigeria in 2011-2015, he led a major effort in making agriculture exciting for the youth.

Speaking on his stewardship as minister of agriculture, Adesina stated that within four years, Nigeria witnessed a massive rice revolution and became self-sufficient in rice paddy production. According to him, Nigeria provided over 15 million farmers with agricultural technologies that allowed the country to produce over 20 million tons of additional food.

“The impact was felt in the general price of food. The price of a 50-kilogram bag rice at the time was N 3,750 compared to N60, 000 today! Then, Nigeria became self-sufficient in paddy rice production,” he stated.

He further disclosed that the African Development Bank (AfDB) significantly supported Nigerian government on agriculture. He disclosed that the AfDB, the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, jointly provided $614 million to support the establishment of special agricultural processing zones, which allow private agribusinesses to establish industries to process and add value to agricultural commodities.

“The African Development Bank also provided $ 134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help drive down food price inflation, by boosting local production of wheat, rice, cassava, under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme.

“I was delighted that this support led to the cultivation of over 277,000 hectares of wheat in 2023/2024, an increase of 139% over the 115,000 hectares planted in the previous year,” he stated.

However, Adesina disclosed that the recent policy direction of the federal government to implement a duty and levy free on food import will erase the recent gains the country achieved within the agribusiness value-chain.

“Nigeria has now thrown its ports wide open for importing food, by removing all duties and levies on the import of maize, husked rice, milled rice and cowpeas. To use the parlance of scriptures “Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Read also: Nigeria’s long journey to food security not yet Uhuru

“This singular policy will literally destroy all the hard work done on Nigerian agriculture. It will set Nigeria back by several decades, turning the nation into the hands of importers, decimating the hard work of Nigerian farmers, obliterate the rural areas, and gut out investors in the agricultural sector,” Adesina stated.

He disclosed that government taxes are needed, however it must be done in ways that do not overtax the population, especially low-income households, and majority of the population that are in the informal sector, simply doing all they can to eke out a living.

In calling for better accountability among the Nigerian political class in promoting good governance, Adesina stated that, “People-centric public policies are needed to assure food security for all, health for all, education for all, and expanded wealth from pro-private sector policies that will drive industrial growth, good jobs and better lives for people.”

On the role the Church can play to directly impart food security and poverty alleviation, Adesina challenged the Church leaders to promote gender and financial inclusion in their church and on the continent.

“Esteemed Church leaders, we must do a lot more for women. Women drive economies across Africa, but generally are unable to access finance. The growth and development of Africa will therefore be accelerated with greater access of women to financing,” Adesina stated

On his part, Henry Ndukuba, Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria, Anglican Communion stated that, “Today, an estimated eighty-five million people in over 165 countries identify as Anglicans. 60 percent of all Anglicans are African. This global family of believers, speaks more than 2,000 languages, and represents over 500 cultures.”