Agriculture Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Inside Business Africa

Aug122021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

International Youth Day: How winners of the Bank’s AgriPitch competition are helping to transform Africa’s food system

Agriculture, Business, Economy, Innovation

As the world observes International Youth Day, Africa is producing a growing number of young entrepreneurs who are adopting new ideas to bring more affordable, quality food from farm to fork. This year’s theme is “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”, putting the spotlight on the role of young people in achieving the success of such a global effort. “Africa’s youth play a key role in scaling up the continent’s agricultural production that can transform Africa’s food systems. On International Youth Day, we celebrate Africa’s next generation ‘agripreneurs,’ whose innovations in agribusiness are helping to feed Africa,” said Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, at the African Development Bank. Iken...

Aug62021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

FAO provides cash plus livestock and agriculture packages to cushion vulnerable households from the desert locust invasion

Agriculture, Business

The desert locust invasion in Somalia has significantly affected the country’s food security, with successive generations of swarms destroying vital crops and pastures. Compounding the situation were floods, cyclones, droughts and the emerging socio-economic impact of coronavirus disease 2019. To provide immediate relief as well as sustained access to nutritious food sources for vulnerable households to help them recover from these shocks and withstand future crises, the FAO office in Somalia, under its “Desert locust crisis – Somalia Action Plan”, implemented a project entitled “Protecting lives and livelihoods impacted by Desert Locusts in rural Somalia”. Funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the project co...

Jul292021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

Strengthening Market-led Digital Agriculture Platforms in Malawi

Agriculture, Business

Searching for markets required money, physical stamina and a lot of time travelling. We used to leave this for men,” Monica Rashid, Msambafumu Network, Lisasadzi Extension Planning Area (EPA), Kasungu. Monica is a smallholder farmer in Kasungu district. She faces challenges in accessing produce markets, extension services, and market information like many other farmers living in remote areas that are far from thriving trading centres. In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES), have provided 78 smartphones to smallholder farmers like Monica, to enhance market-led digital extension services. The i...

Jul262021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

African Development Bank Group, Ethiopia, sign $118 million in grant agreements to support agro industrial park, youth employment and Ethiopia-Djibouti power interconnection

Agriculture, Business, Corporate Stories

The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) and the Government of Ethiopia have signed two separate grant agreements for new projects to boost youth employment and electricity trade between Ethiopia and Djibouti. The grants fall under the Bank Group’s concessional lending window, the African Development Fund, and will go towards the Productivity Enhancement to Support Agro Industrial Parks and Youth Employment Project worth $47 million, and the $71 million Ethiopia-Djibouti Second Power Interconnection Project, which aims to boost electricity trade between Ethiopia and neighbouring Djibouti. The industrial parks and youth project will see the development of irrigation and water management infrastructure around the Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks, offering opportunities for gr...

Jul152021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

African Development Bank, partners, renew commitment to end child stunting in Africa

Agriculture, Growth & Insight

Urging unity and action to accelerate nutrition targets amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, representatives of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org), the Aliko Dangote Foundation and Big Win Philanthropy renewed their commitment to end child stunting and other forms of malnutrition through the Banking on Nutrition Partnership (https://bit.ly/3wEhp4H). The partners convened during a high-level panel discussion held on 8 July, organized by the African Development Bank. They shared lessons learned, experiences, achievements of the Banking on Nutrition Partnership since its inception five years ago. They also discussed its implementation within the African Development Bank and its Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Action Plan, as well as measures to encourage other organizations and developmen...

Jul82021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

African Development Fund extends $83.6 million in grants to boost Ethiopia-Djibouti electricity trade

Agriculture, Business, Growth & Insight, Innovation

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB.org) has approved two grants worth $83.6 million to boost cross-border trade in electricity between Ethiopia and Djibouti and to deepen integration in the Horn of Africa sub-region. The funds comprise a $69.65 million grant to Ethiopia and a second grant of $13.93 million to Djibouti, both sourced from the African Development Fund, the African Development Bank’s concessional financing window. The Ethiopia–Djibouti Second Power Interconnection project will entail the construction of nearly 300 km of interconnector line, 170 km of transmission lines, and new construction or renovation of substations in the two countries. The project is aligned with the Bank’s East African Regional Integration Strategy Paper, which s...

Jul82021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

African Development Bank bolsters women-empowered businesses with $50 million loan to FCMB bank

Agriculture, Business, Innovation

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB.org) has approved a loan of $50 million to Nigeria’s First City Monument Bank (FCMB) to channel to local enterprises and women-empowered businesses in the agribusiness, manufacturing, healthcare and renewable energy sectors. Thirty percent of the funds, which are intended to mitigate effects of the challenging Covid-19 environment, are earmarked for underserved women-empowered businesses. In addition, the Bank will provide a technical assistance grant of $200,000 through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative supported by the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative. The grant will complement the loan by enabling First City Monument Bank to provide non-financial services, including tra...

Jul82021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

African Development Bank to support creation of agricultural value chains in Côte d’Ivoire – President Adesina

Agriculture, Business, Economy

The African Development Bank (AfDB.org) will support Côte d'Ivoire in creating agricultural value chains to create more jobs and make economic growth more inclusive, the bank’s president, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, said on Tuesday during a meeting with Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi. "The African Development Bank will support the Ivorian government in the creation of agricultural value chains in banana, mango, palm oil, cashew, coffee and cocoa products ... There will be investments to transform rural areas into areas of wealth" for the people, Adesina said. Since 2015, the African Development Bank, whose head office is based in Abidjan, has quadrupled its investments in Côte d'Ivoire, bringing its portfolio to $2.7 billion. The African Development Bank will support the Ivoria...

Jun232021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

‘Reliance on trade restrictions keeps agric sector below potential’

Agriculture, Business

Continued reliance on trade restrictions as a primary tool for stimulating local production would lead to greater market instability, undermine supply and expose consumers to significant price fluctuations, therefore making food security elusive as population growth puts more pressure on food resources. This was part of the insights shared in the 2021 Agriculture Industry Report by Sterling Bank Plc, in partnership with StearsData. The report equally showed that Nigeria’s agricultural sector is operating below its potential, “even by its standards.” It identified the inefficiencies that slowed and crippled the growth of the sector. COVID-19 and its attendant shock, according to the report, reinforce the need for an agricultural sector that is more resilient to shocks an imper...

Jun212021 by Joshua OlotuNo Comments

Insecurity suppressing improved agricultural production – NESG

Agriculture, Corporate Stories, Economy

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, has warned that Nigeria’s insecurity situation suppresses any progress made towards increased food production in a bid to ease food inflation. The NESG disclosed this in its First Quarter, 2021 Economic Report released on Sunday. They urged the FG to take various steps to tackle the insecurity in Nigeria which has seen farmers get killed or refuse to go to their farms out of fear. The NESG added that improved agricultural production would be insufficient to ease inflationary pressures, except the issue of insecurity was addressed. “Despite the reopening of the land borders, that the Nigerian government shut since October 2019, inflation reached a four-year high of 18.1% in April 2021. “While we expect improved agricultural...