AfDB Seeks $200m From Germany, For Emergency Food Production

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said it is seeking a $200 million fund from Germany and other members of G-7 countries to “urgently” address the food crisis in Africa.

According to the bank, the request is to fund its $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Plan, which is the bank’s flagship intervention to avert the looming food crisis in Africa.

Specifically, the President of the AfBD, Akinwumi Adesina, who tabled the request at the G7 Ministerial Conference on ‘Uniting for Global Food Security’, noted that the support was needed to address the global food crisis partly caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said, “While the African Development Bank has mobilised $1.3 billion of the $1.5 billion needed for the African Emergency Food Production Plan, we have a financing gap of $200 million. I would, therefore, like to request that Germany and all G-7 countries help provide this balance of $200 million. “The funding gap is required urgently to facilitate the desire to make Africa a global solution to the food crisis,”

Adesina added. Also, the AfDB Boss pointed out that Africa has the right technology to produce sufficient food for consumption and export, saying the continent would bring to the table a unique solution to tackling the food crisis by providing 20 million African smallholder farmers with certified seeds and increased access to fertilisers, among other interventions.

Agro Nigeria