President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has been commended for implementing positive and far-reaching policies that helped in revolutionising Nigeria’s agricultural sector during his tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture.
The Managing Partner, Sahel Capital Agribusiness Managers, Mezuo Nwuneli, gave the commendation in a report published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Mezuo Nwuneli, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sahel Capital, an agribusiness-focused private investment firm managing US$90 million in commitments across two funds that invest across sub-Saharan Africa, said as Nigeria’s former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina made the opportunities in the country’s agricultural sector to become exciting to Nigerians, including the youth, through the way he communicated the opportunities to them.
“When Adesina was minister, he was able to communicate the opportunities in the sector in a way that was exciting for people. Around that time, there was a lot of excitement and interest in the youths and the many people coming into the sector at the same time.” Said Nwuneli.
A bold reformer, as Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015 Dr. Adesina turned the agriculture sector of Nigeria around within four years.
Under his tenure, Nigeria ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector by developing and implementing an innovative electronic wallet system, which directly provides farmers with subsidized farm inputs at scale using their mobile phones.
Within the first four years of its launch, the electronic wallet system reached 15 million farmers, dramatically transforming their lives.
The AfDB President on 19 October 2017, was conferred with the World Food Prize, also known as the “Nobel Prize for Agriculture”
Only a few weeks ago, Dr. Adesina was appointed one of the global leaders to spearhead the fight against malnutrition, food, and nutrition security, by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, under the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.
Members of the SUN Movement Lead Group include representatives from the membership of the SUN Movement, which includes 65 countries, 4 Indian states, more than 4,000 civil society organisations, more than 1,400 businesses (including small and medium enterprises), 16 United Nations agencies, international finance institutions and donor governments and philanthropies funding nutrition.
“I believe that the approach of the SUN Movement to tackle malnutrition through a country-owned multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach is more crucial than ever before. These global leaders are championing country-led efforts to scale up nutrition and to deliver for girls, boys, and their families a world free from malnutrition by 2030”, Guterres said.
With Dr. Adesina at the helm, the African Development Bank Group has achieved the highest capital increase since its establishment in 1964 when on 31 October 2019, shareholders from 80 member countries raised the general capital from $93 billion to a historic $208 billion.
