The African Development Bank (AfDB) said Wednesday in Abuja that it had earmarked 2 billion US dollar (10,8 milliarder DKR) for the development of agriculture in Africa in the next five years.
AfDB President Donald Kaberuka made the disclosure in at the close of the three-day High Conference on Agric-business and Agro-industries in Africa.
Kaberuka said the money would be given out as credits to countries to boost agricultural infrastructure, with emphasis on water mobilization and rural infrastructure. – Investment in agriculture must go beyond farming to include agric business, he said.
At the conference UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Undersecretary-General Abdoulie Janneh said food imports from the developed world into the African continent annually gulp 33 billion dollar. This, he said, is besides the 3 billion which comes in the form of aid from international donor agencies.
He said the continent has had to resort to food imports to bridge the gap between domestic food supply and demand which is mainly fueled by urban demand for processed food.
More than 200 million people in Africa are malnou-rished and the con-tinent requires a staggering 620 billion dollar to feed its people in the next 40 years, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said at the conference.
The number represents 26 percent of the entire population in Africa, which requires 6,5 billion dollar annually to develop the sector.
Over 70 percent of the people in Africa depend on agriculture for survival and it contributes about 20 to 50 percent to the continent’s GDP.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
