“Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones will reduce business cost” – AfDB President

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) would reduce the cost of doing business for food and agriculture companies located in beneficiary countries.

Dr. Adesina stated this at a News Conference to conclude the Bank’s 2022 Annual Meetings in Accra, Ghana.

Also, the AfDB President noted that African countries lose too much of their food post-harvest, adding that the zones would add value by processing agricultural produce.

Dr. Adesina said the AfDB has invested one billion dollars in agro-industrial processing zones to curb food losses in Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius and Mozambique, among other African countries.

“The new investments the bank is making are to be close to areas the farmers are producing, enabled with water, infrastructure, logistics so that the food and agriculture processing companies can be located close to the zones.

“The processing companies in most countries of Africa are not located in the rural areas because there is no infrastructure in rural areas.

“What we are trying to do with the processing zones is to reduce the cost of doing business for the food and agriculture companies, so that they can off-take from the farmers and process there.

“We lose too much of our food and the consequence is that we start complaining about carbon emissions, producing and not having any impact and that affects the prices of food that eventually gets to the market.

“The post-harvest losses is what I can describe as pouring water into a bucket that has holes, you have to stop the leakage.

“In developed countries, post-harvest losses are as a result of too much food- you can’t eat it; you throw it away, but in Africa, it is not like that,” Adesina added.

Source: Agro Nigeria