Africa Spends $35M On Imported Foods Annually

THE President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the bill for food imports in Africa is now $35 billion annually.

According to him, this should encourage Africans to develop their agricul­tural sector and channel the amount for food imports into something else.

However, he emphasised that food, in quantity and quality, is the right of every human being, saying that what is most important is the safety of the belly.

Adesina, who stated this at the just-concluded con­ference on agriculture and agribusiness in Dakar, Sen­egal, said Africa is ready to put agriculture in a com­mercial enterprise – a trans­formation that requires the diversification of the agri­cultural sector.

The AfDB president is convinced that Africa has to be the breadbasket of the world. “However, in order to achieve this, she must re­lease her full potential and make a radical transforma­tion of agriculture.”