ABUJA: Africa Development Bank(AfDB) is seeking $400 billion over the next 10 years for an intiative known as Africa Feeding Africa to reduce food importation in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Currently,Africa spends $35.4 billion annually on food imports. Out of this, Nigeria spends $12billion on food imports.
Addressing over 200 research and development experts at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, the Director, Agriculture and Agro Industry Department, AfDB, Dr Chiji Ojukwu,warned that the continent’s import bill could hit $40 billion yearly if nothing is done to arrest it.
Consequently, he said the bank,working with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) designed the programme also known as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT)), targeted at eliminating extreme poverty, hunger, nutrition, achieve food sufficiency and turn the continent into a net food exporter. The plan is to spend $40billion yearly to build the critical value chains to achieve rapid agricultural transformation across Africa and raise productivity.
