Africa’s Agribusiness Development: ECOWAS advocates enabling policy, legal & economic environment
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said agribusiness development in Africa requires the provision of an enabling policy, legal and economic environment.
Specifically, the Head of Agriculture Division, ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Ernest Aubee, stated this during an African agribusiness webinar where he presented a paper titled, “Sustainable Agribusiness in Africa”.
Aubee noted that increased public and private sector investments on the continent was critical, adding that agribusiness has the potential to drive the socio-economic development of Africa.
According to him, agriculture on the continent remains one of the most important sectors, saying the share of agriculture in the continental GDP increased to 19.9% in 2020/2021 from 17.8% in 2019/2020, with agribusiness contributing approximately 25% of Africa’s GDP and providing 70% employment, while agriculture-based products accounted for over 50% of all exports from Africa.
“Agribusiness refers to the enterprises, industry and field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy.
“It refers to a combination of agriculture and business activities that seek to achieve specific objectives of profitability, efficiency and effectiveness and embrace the value chain concept of agriculture from production to consumption.
“However, challenges are: access to finance for smallholder farmers; poor infrastructure from farms to markets, (processing, packaging and markets); inadequate transport networks (Road, Sea, Air); limited agricultural technologies; availability of relevant macro and sectoral policies and regulations to drive the sector; lack of commitment to investments in agriculture in accordance with SDG, AU Agenda 2063/Malabo Declaration, ECOWAP etc.
“Also, there is limited local private sector engagements and education and modernisation of agribusiness in Africa,” Aubee added.
Speaking on solutions to Africa’s agribusiness development, he recommended building human capacities in the agribusiness value chain with emphasis on women, youths and the poor.
Also, Aubee pointed out the need for promotion of value addition to agricultural commodities as well as investment in rural infrastructure, while creating crop-processing zones, not just for export crops but also for food crops.
“The continent has 1,119 million hectares of agricultural land, which constitutes 40% of the continent’s land area.
“Irrigated area stands at 13million hectares, representing 6% of cultivated area, hence investments in agribusiness are key to ending poverty, improving livelihoods, revitalizing national economies from post Covid-19 pandemic and cushioning the impact of Russia/Ukraine War on the continent,” he noted.
The ECOWAS official described the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as a singular opportunity for food security, trade and development, while calling for improved energy access for producers, processors and marketers and the promotion of climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Africa to enhance trading on the continent.
Also, Aubee called for the promotion of effective and innovative financing across Africa and up-scaling of agribusiness best practices in the rice value chain in Nigeria and Mali as well as cashew in Cote D’Ívoire and Guinea Bissau.
Source: Agro Nigeria
