Ouagadougou: The President of the African Development Bank Group, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, declared a few days ago in Abuja that the decision of the Nigerian government to authorize the massive importation of food risks destroying the country’s agriculture.

This statement from the head of the AfDB, reported by its communications services, comes after the announcement by the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari. on July 10, according to which the federal government would suspend duties, tariffs and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas at the land and sea borders of the country, for a period of 150 days.

‘Nigeria’s recently announced policy of opening its borders to massive food imports, just to combat food price increases in the short term, is depressing,’ said Adesina, who was speaking at the event. of a meeting of African primates of the Anglican Church in Abuja, Nigeria.

He warned that the policy could undermine all efforts and private investments made in Niger
ia’s agricultural sector.

‘Nigeria cannot rely on food importation to stabilize prices. Nigeria should produce more food to stabilize prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange expenditure, which will help further stabilize the Naira’ [the local currency], continued the president of the African Bank of development.

‘Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity. Nigeria must not become a nation dependent on food imports,’ he insisted.

Mr. Adesina, who was speaking at this meeting organized by religious circles on the theme of food security and financial sustainability in Africa, declared that Nigeria ‘must feed itself with pride’.

‘A nation that depends on others for food is independent in name only,’ he warned after urging the Nigerian government to take advantage of the Bank’s investments and support for African farmers; to demonstrate greater determination and commitment to achieve food self-sufficiency, and put in place incentive measures for private sector agro-industrial compan
ies.

The AfDB has a $25 billion program aimed at transforming agriculture by providing high-performance agricultural technologies to 40 million farmers and making Africa food self-sufficient by 2030.

Before being promoted to head of the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina was minister in charge of agriculture and rural development in Nigeria and vice-president of the Alliance for Green Agriculture in Africa (AGRA). An Afro-optimist, he predicts that Africa will be the pivot of the world.

Source: Burkina Information Agency