The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced that it is designing youth entrepreneurship investment banks in Nigeria and 12 other African countries to create wealth in the continent.
This was made known by the President of AfDB Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, at a news conference to conclude the Bank’s 2022 Annual Meetings in Accra, Ghana.
Adesina said that this initiative which is to be finalised by June is expected to help the youths have access to capital and create wealth for the younger generation for the development of the continent.
What the President of AfDB Group is saying
Adesina who revealed that the bank had invested $1 billion on special agro-industrial processing zones to prevent food losses, listed some of the countries to benefit from this move to include Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Mozambique, among others.
- He said, “We are designing renewed financial institutions that will invest into the business of the youths and Ghana is one of the benefitting countries.
- ”We have 13 countries and we expect to finish that design by the end of June. It will create youths based wealth for the continent.
- ”These are the new investments the bank is making to be close to the areas that the farmers are producing enabled with water, infrastructure, logistics so that the food and agriculture processing companies can be located close to the zones.
- ”The processing companies in most countries are not located in the rural areas because there are no infrastructure in the rural areas
- ”What we are trying to do with the processing zones is to reduce the cost of doing business for the food and agriculture companies, so that they can offtake from the farmers and process them there.
- ”We loose too much of our food and the consequence is that we start complaining about carbon emissions, producing and not having any impact and that affects the prices of food that eventually gets to the market.
- ”Post-harvest losses is what I can describe as pouring water into a bucket that has holes, you have to stop the leakage but in developed countries, post-harvest losses is as a result of too much food, you can’t eat it, you throw it away but in Africa, it is not like that.’’
What you should know
- In a related development, Adesina had earlier said that the AfDB would lend $500 million to women in 2022 as well as raise the sum of $5 billion with the support of the French President, Emmanuel Macron and G-7.
- The AfDB President had also in response to the Economist’s article which accused the financial institution of weak governance stated the bank is an AAA-rated financial institution, the only one in Africa and has consistently maintained its stellar AAA credit ratings by all major global credit rating agencies.
- Adesina also added that the bank’s work has impacted 335 million people.
Projects that pursue smart climate and sustainable agriculture should be one of the key major focus to reducing food waste by replacing traditional farming activities with renewable energy systems among rural farmers. One of the major causes of food wastage in sub Saharan Africa is the use of sun drying, and other local preservation method among rural/small scale farmers. By replacing these local agriculture process with renewable energy devices with not only reduce food waste but tend to promote sustainable farming.