The African Development Bank is ready to set up fourteen agro-processing zones across Africa, with Nigeria as its pilot country. Wole Oshin, the Ag Head AgriBusiness, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc., revealed this development at the Social Media Week Lagos 2020 (SMW Lagos).
Mr. Wole divulged this information during his panel session on the 26th of February, 2020. The session dubbed ‘Roundtable: Agritech Youth Empowerment’ was hosted by MyFarmbase Africa, an Agritech platform that leverages technology for research, advocacy, and sustainable agriculture consulting. The startup aims to leverage all at its disposal to boost food production in Africa.
MyFarmbase invited Wole Oshin, Ag. Head AgriBusiness, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc; Aliu Iyanuoluwa, CEO/Co-founder MyFarmbase Africa; Segun Oworu, Digital Farming project Lead, Bayer Middle Africa Ltd.; and Angel Adelaja-Kuye, Consultant to Ogun State.
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“The AFDB would invest N300 million in Nigeria, the pilot country to help smoothen the kick-off of the processing zones,” said Mr. Wole.
He further explained that the pilot would begin in the middle of the third quarter of 2020, and the private agro companies in the country will spearhead the program.
To further smoothen things for the agricultural value chain in Africa, the AFDB will be partnering with the fintechs in the continent. Fintechs will leverage the partnership to drive financial solutions across the agro value chain.
The agro-processing will focus on Maize, Soya, rice, aquaculture, cocoa, poultry, cassava, and livestock farming.
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