The African Development Bank Group President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, says a fertiliser crisis triggered by the Russian war in Ukraine could put more than $10 billion worth of food production at risk in Africa.
He said this during a three-day official visit to Washington DC, which included several bilateral engagements with stakeholders on African development.
This was contained in a press statement published on Monday on AfDB’s website.
According to him, “A fertilizer crisis borne out of the Russian war in Ukraine could put more than $10 billion of food production at risk.”
According to the AfDB president, the bank is focused on boosting massive food production to combat the looming global food crisis in Africa due to the war in Ukraine.
He said the bank will mitigate the effects of the food crisis through an African Food Crisis Response and Emergency Facility – a dedicated facility that will provide African countries with resources needed to raise local food production and procure fertilizer.
The statement further read in part, “Meeting with the African Union’s Group of 15 Finance Ministers, Adesina outlined the continent’s immediate challenges and the solutions that were being applied to tackle them successfully.
“Top of Adesina’s list was a plan for massive food production in the face of a looming global food crisis caused by the Russian war in Ukraine, and the need for a more flexible and substantial replenishment of the African Development Fund.
“The ministers agreed to a joint communique on financing Africa’s economic resilience in turbulent times. They called for a substantial replenishment of the African Development Fund and for the Fund to be allowed to use its equity to leverage more resources from international capital markets to meet the rapidly growing needs of countries in Africa.”
Adesina further highlighted the Bank’s innovative Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a program operating across nine food commodities in more than 30 African countries.
Meanwhile, Adesina was received at the White House by Dana Banks, Special Assistant to US President Joseph Biden and Senior Director for Africa at the White House.
Banks said it is important to mitigate the spill-over of the Russian war in Ukraine on food security in Africa and strongly welcomed the leadership of the African Development Bank on its emergency food production plan for Africa.
Adesina also met with Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. French Gates said it is important for Africa to feed itself and focus on nutrition.
She expressed strong support for the bold African emergency food production plan developed by the African Development Bank, and she called for a strong replenishment of the African Development Fund.
“I will be your strong advocate for G7 countries to do more for the African Development Fund and to put in more resources for Africa,” she said.
A meeting of heads of regional multilateral development banks was held to discuss, among other things, the impact the Russian war in Ukraine was having on development across the world.
Adesina spoke about its direct impact on food and fertilizer supplies in Africa, while also emphasizing the Bank’s climate change collaboration with the Global Center on Adaptation, as well as the its record-breaking 83% investment portfolio in renewable energy.
Adesina and several multilateral development bank heads agreed there was a need for a common voice on the re-channeling of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.
The Bank President also spoke about the importance of indigenous vaccine production in Africa, and progress being made on the proposed establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.
During an engagement at the Atlantic Council earlier in the week, Adesina fielded questions from the Council’s Africa Center Chair, Ambassador Rama Yade and others, giving a broad perspective of Africa’s challenges and the steps being taken to address them by African countries with the support of the African Development Bank Group.
He called for greater resource mobilization in Africa. In his words, “I do not believe in begging. Africa should develop more using its own resources”.
The Bank Group chief invited his various interlocutors to the African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings taking place from May 23 to 27 in Accra, Ghana.
