Speaking during a panel discussion on Building Multilateral partnership and financing support, African Development Bank Group (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina outlined how the bank was using technology to spur agricultural productivity in various African countries
The panel discussion was part of the three-day Dakar 2 Food Summit which was opened on 25 January by Senegalese President Macky Sall, whose government was co-hosting the Summit together with the AfDB. “Today we have the technologies to feed Africa; We need to put them into the hands of the farmers. The technologies are working and we have to deliver them at scale,” Adesina told the panel, moderated by Daouda Sembene, CEO of Africatalyst, a global development advisory firm.
Adesina recalled his five priority objectives, including Feed Africa and also highlighted the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT). He mentioned that the Bank was rolling out the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) initiative designed to transform Africa’s agricultural sector. “We’re going to build on these to boost production and feed Africa. We are going to work not as individual institutions but as partners to achieve rapid results,” he said.
The director general of the Arab Bank for Economic Development Sidi Ould Tah, said that as development partners, multilateral development agencies must work with governments, civil society bodies, farmers, and sister agencies to feed Africa. Furthermore, president of the West African Development Bank Serge Ekue, stated that his organisation had planned to invest US$2bn for more than five years to support agriculture in Africa.
