Africa’s food imports projected to increase sevenfold to $110bn by 2025 — Afreximbank
Many African countries still depend solely on food importation to survive regardless of their large land areas, says a new report by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) that also reveals that all countries on the continent together spend an average of $50 billion annually importing foods.
“The nations of Africa together import approximately $50 billion of food each year, a figure that could climb to as much as $110 billion by 2025 without significant interventions,” the report published the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution says. Despite being blessed with vast natural resources and fertile land, the Afreximbank notes that African nations have yet to be able to fully utilize it by meeting their own food needs. Instead, they have become increasingly dependent on food imports and plagued by food insecurity and undernourishment, as illustrated by the projected sevenfold increase by food imports from $15 billion in 2018 to $110 billion by next year, according to latest data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly urged African countries to focus more on agriculture, saying the continent imported food amounting to at least $50 billion per year, in reference to the Afreximbank report. Speaking at the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Union (Sacau) annual meeting in Victoria Falls, Mnangagwa said the continent needed to “harness its arable land to stimulate economic growth and improve its food security”.
Governor of Nigeria’s Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has urged Nigerians to prioritize investment and development of the agricultural sector to turn around the country’s economic fortunes. He also highlighted his government’s efforts to revitalize agriculture to boost the Edo State’s economy, tackle food security, and drive sustainable development.