Akinwumi Adesina: Transformed Agriculture in Nigeria, Now Taking AfDB to Greater Heights

A few days ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a national food emergency.

Given the global impacts of the war in Ukraine on fertilizer and food production, especially grains and food oils, the President’s declaration is a step in the right direction.

12 years ago, a young Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, made the case for food and revolutionizing food production value chains in Nigeria.

The contributions of the current president of African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Akinwumi Adesina who eventually transformed Nigeria’s agriculture sector by implementing positive and far-reaching policies, cannot be overemphasized.

When Dr. Adesina was Minister for Agriculture in Nigeria (2011-2015), the country first launched a major Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) in 2012, intending to add 20 million MT of food to domestic food supplies by 2015, and create 3.5 million jobs.

The novel and unprecedented policies hit the ground running. Immediate and notable achievements were made.

This included the launch of the first-ever comprehensive database of farmers in the country, which allowed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to know its customers – the farmers.

An unprecedented success of ATA was the eradication of corruption and shenanigans in the fertilizer sector within 90 days of resuming office as Minister, by taking the government out of the business of procuring and distributing fertilizers and seeds.

“To reach the farmers directly, we used the power of mobile phones in their hands. Farmers received subsidized seeds and fertilizer vouchers on their mobile phones – or e-wallets (electronic wallets) – which they use just like cash to buy inputs directly from agro-dealers, who should have been in the production and distribution business in the first place,” said Dr. Adesina, former Agric minister and now president of the African Development Bank.

Under the scheme, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to launch an electronic wallet system for the delivery of subsidized inputs to farmers.

Within one year, the e-wallet reached a total of 1.7 million farmers. In 2013, it was scaled up to reach an additional 5 million farmers. The system has expanded private sector opportunities and as a result, fertilizer companies sold $100 million worth of fertilizers directly to farmers, instead of the government.

Seed companies sold $10 million worth of seeds directly to farmers. Banks lent $20 million to seed, fertilizer companies, and agro-dealers. The default rate under the scheme was zero percent.

Nigeria’s agricultural sector contributed 21.66 percent to its real gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In Q1 2022, the Agric sector was responsible for 22.36 percent of the GDP and in the past quarter, Q4 2022, it contributed 26.46%. Since 2016, the sector has shown positive growth until this one under review, which showed a fall of 0.9 percent.

Despite being fertile and having abundant arable land, the country is beset by food insecurity and a myriad of challenges that continue to bedevil the agro-industrial industry.

The fact is, a majority of young Nigerians do not want to go into food production or the agro-industry despite the huge potential. The government has not provided sufficient enough incentives or made necessary investments to help unlock the potential of an industry that was once the mainstay of the economy.

Taking AfDB to greater heights

The achievements of the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Dr. Adesina, have greatly contributed to the strategic positioning of Africa in the global economy.

The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture is a quiet achiever as his achievements are worth highlighting.

Dr. Adesina was elected the president of AfDB in 2015. Following the impressive implementation and performance of his strategic High-5 agenda, Adesina became the first President of the bank to be unanimously re-elected in 2020 by the board of governors of the Bank and its 85 shareholder countries.

During his first term in office, 18 million people have access to electricity, 141 million have access to improved agri-technologies and 15 million have access to private investment finance.

It is important to note that under his watch, 101 million people have access to improved transport infrastructure, while 60 million have access to water and sanitation.

The Bank’s High5 strategic agenda to Light Up and Power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the Lives of the People Africa, has since impacted over 335 million people and expanded its presence to 44 countries, including fragile states.

According to a recent article by Dr. Patricia Laverly, Country Manager, designated for the Tanzania Country Office, AfDB, President Adesina has helped maintain the African Development Bank’s “AAA” credit rating and increased the net operating income of the Bank by 50 percent as he was pivotal to mobilizing new investment capital to support countries in Africa.

The African Development Bank and its partners intend to leverage appropriately $300 billion of new private capital into Africa over the next 8 years,” said Laverly.

In October 2019, the African Development Bank Group successfully completed an unprecedented 125% General Capital Increase, increasing the bank’s authorised share capital to $208 billion, the highest in the history of the institution, since its establishment in 1964.

AfDB’s concessional lending window, the African Development Fund (ADF) was increased by 35 percent, making funds available to support low-income countries and economies in transition.

“As a result of these achievements, president Adesina received unanimous support and endorsement by 55 African heads of State Government and 26 non-African member countries, for his second term as president of the African Development Bank,” said Laverly.

In 2021, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), approved a $210 million loan to Nigeria to fund agro-industrial processing zones in different parts of the country.

The loan will co-finance phase one of Nigeria’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ), programme, a statement obtained from the Bank said.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has also approved a $134 million loan for the National Agriculture Growth Scheme’s Agro Pocket program to scale up food production in Nigeria and boost livelihoods.

The African Development Bank Group consists of three distinct Funds: African Development Bank(ADB); African Development Fund (ADF); and the Nigerian Trust Fund (NTF). Its 81 sovereign shareholders include 55 African countries and 26 non-African countries. Nigeria is the Bank’s largest shareholder with 9%.