The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the bank will support Nigeria with about $30 million reallocated fund to be used for an emergency food plan to produce in the dry season.
Adesina told journalists a news briefing ahead of the bank’s 2022 annual meeting in Accra, Ghana, yesterday that Nigeria would benefit significantly from the African Emergency Food Production Plan.
He also said the AfDB would help Nigeria return to the electronic wallet system of input distribution to farmers to boost agricultural production.
The e-wallet system was introduced by Adesina when he was the country’s Minister of Agriculture.
The system allowed the government to register about 14.5 million farmers and reached them directly with inputs, notably seeds and fertiliser, via electronic coupons on their mobile phones.
“Nigeria needs to go back and use the electronic wallet system that I developed when I was a minister to get fertiliser straight to farmers and cut out all the middlemen.
“We’re going to help the government to do that because when farmers have quality seeds and fertilisers, they can rapidly triple food production,” local media reports on Tuesday quoted Adesina as saying.
“In Nigeria, we’ve provided $540 million for special agro-industrial processing zones in seven states, including the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
According to him, it will allow Nigeria to have special zones where you can have agro-processing value addition and increased competitiveness of agriculture.
GIK/APA