The African Development Bank (AfDB) says the newly launched agro-industrial processing zones in Nigeria can tackle poverty in Nigeria.

In an interview with NAN, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, a special adviser on industrialisation to the AfDB president, said the project’s impacts would save millions of Nigerians from hunger and poverty if properly harnessed.

A $538 million initiative, the programme is expected to bring economic infrastructure to rural areas of high agricultural potential.

The zones, which will take up 19 per cent of Nigeria’s landmass, are expected to attract private agro-industrialist and entrepreneur investment and benefit over 50 million Nigerians across the six geopolitical zones.

The $538 million is made up of funds from the AfDB, Africa Growing Together Fund and the Islamic Development Bank as wells as funds from Federal and State governments.

Mr Oyelaran-Oyeyinka also stated that the project could stop food importation to Nigeria and get the nation to scale up its own food exportation.

“If all we do in the next couple of years is to ensure that Nigeria doesn’t import food anymore, that will be a great achievement, but ultimately we want to also export. A country’s growth sustainability is set by how much you also are able to sell to others, not just importing from others,” added Mr Oyelaran-Oyeyinka. “When you keep importing, and you found out that the urban population has been growing, the taste of people is changing, and people are demanding for more sophisticated goods, but there is no foreign exchange.”