The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced today that it will allocate 10 billion dollars over the next five years to boost food production, through specific programs designed for each country.

"The AfDB Group is committing 10 billion dollars over the next five years to boost Africa's efforts to end hunger and become a supplier of basic foodstuffs for itself and the rest of the world," reads a statement released during the African Food Summit, which runs until Friday in Dakar.

Attended by more than 30 heads of state and 70 ministers and representatives of the private sector and development partners, the Dakar 2 Food Summit is being held jointly by the AfDB and the Government of Senegal. Various Compacts designed to take into account the specific characteristics of each country were presented, including the Portuguese-speaking countries of Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

Speaking at the meeting, the president of the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, challenged leaders to "transform political will into decisive action to guarantee food security in Africa", advocated "strong support for young people and women farmers" and considered that agriculture "should be a business, not a development activity".

According to the communiqué, UN Secretary-General António Guterres sent a message to the meeting, in which he acknowledged that "Africa is currently facing the challenges of climate change and food insecurity" and pledged the UN's support to "help Africa become a global food powerhouse".

The African continent was hit hard by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions on Russian exports, which affected the ability of African governments and companies to buy fertilizers, not only because of the shortage, but also because of the increase in prices, coupled with the rise in energy prices.

The Food Production Compact launched by the AfDB for dozens of countries in Africa includes specific goals and objectives for each country, pointing out the main priorities in terms of increasing production.

"Central bank governors and finance ministers are expected to develop financing agreements to implement food distribution and agriculture compacts, together with agriculture ministers, private sector actors, commercial bank financial institutions, and multilateral partners and organizations," the statement reads.

In the case of Angola, the ADB says that "the implementation of the Compact will contribute directly to increasing production and productivity, improving food security and nutrition, in line with the government's strategy to transform Angolan agriculture and livestock into a prosperous sector and a driving force for inclusive growth and economic diversification.

The priority production areas are rice, wheat, corn, soybeans and poultry, and the bank stresses that "the financing and implementation of the Compact will depend on an ambitious plan to attract private sector investors to the agricultural sector".

The implementation of the plan "will require an investment of 5.7 billion dollars, to be obtained through an ambitious plan to attract investors in the sector; it is estimated that direct public investment by the Angolan government will be 60 million dollars, allocated to financing investments in rural infrastructure," the document, quoted by Lusa, concludes.