The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have provided $244 million for emergency food production in Nigeria.

AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina announced this at the inauguration of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones in Abuja.

Mr Adesina said the bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility provided $134 million, while JICA provided $110 million.

“I would like to thank the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA) for co-financing this with an additional $110 million,” he stated. “That means we collectively made available $244 million for emergency food production in Nigeria.’’

The AfDB president also mentioned that there was the need for greater action, responsiveness, and delivery to avert a food crisis in the country.

He stressed that more needed to be done to fully unlock the potential of Nigeria’s agriculture, and promote and support the agribusiness sector.

“Agriculture is critical for the survival of any nation. The most important role of any nation is to feed its people. Food is a fundamental human right. Transforming agriculture must start with recognising that agriculture is a business, a wealth creating sector, not just a way of life,” Mr Adesina explained.

He added that unlocking wealth in agriculture “requires the provision of appropriate technologies to boost productivity, development of agricultural value chains, financial structure to support agricultural value chains, and investments in infrastructure to unlock investments by food and agribusinesses.”

(NAN)