Africa needs to focus on adding value within Africa – AfDB President

The president of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has stressed the need for Africa to focus on adding value within the continent.

He said this while disclosing the bank’s investment plan of $24 billion over the next 10 years through its Feed Africa Strategy, to drive growth and transformation of the agricultural sector in Africa.

“The bank’s calculation is that transforming African agriculture will cost approximately $315 billion over 10 years, but will create new markets worth roughly $85 billion per year in incremental revenue by 2025”, he said.

Adesina further noted that Africa is losing lots of money from exportation of its raw materials which isn’t adding value to the continent.

He said, “There has to be a shift from the export of raw agricultural products to a more productive and wealth-enhancing strategy, namely the generation and consolidation of value along the agricultural production chains. “We can save billions of dollars every year this way (at least $35 billion and rising fast each year), instead of spending it on buying in food that we should be growing and processing ourselves. Agriculture is the original mainstay of African countries because it produces the majority of food consumed, giving employment to over 60 per cent of Africans and contributing 16.2 per cent of Africa’s overall GDP.”

He however called on governments in Africa to establish the relevant infrastructures that will drive growth in the continent.