President of Africa. Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina on Monday disclosed that the Continental Bank has designed a $1.5 billion emergency food production plan with the view to supporting African countries to avert the looming food crisis.
Dr Adesina disclosed this while addressing the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP), and expressed grave concern over the impacts of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine on the African continent, especially on food production.
According to him, “The Russian war in Ukraine has added another challenge to what we are facing in Africa. the dependency of African countries on Russia and Ukraine, the war disruption has added to the looming food crisis in Africa.
“The African Development Bank has designed a $1.5 billion emergency food production plan to support African countries to avert the looming food crisis.
“Africa should be decoupled from food import dependency. Africa must feed itself and do so with pride. The economic recovery must be felt in day to day lives of people.
“The recovery must create jobs and recover jobs lost, focus on MSMEs, the recovery must focus on youths and tackle debts of Africa.
“The recovery will require close partnership with executive arm and legislative arm of government. Regardless of the challenges facing our country, be the solution providers, drive for an economic recovery that’s felt by all,” Dr Adesina noted.
While speaking on the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent, the AfDB helmsman tasked Nigeria and other African counterparts with the need to establish a Healthcare Defense System, prioritize the development of local vaccines and build quality healthcare infrastructure.
He affirmed that the “COVID-19 pandemic affected the growth and develop Africa as well as the rest of the world. Africa’s confirmed COVID-19 cases stand at 11.5 million people with 253,000 deaths.
“Africa’s economic growth was in decline by minus -1.5 per cent, over 26 million people fell further into poverty, while 30 million jobs were lost.
“The trajectory of economic recovery from the pandemic is shaped by access to vaccines, and on this the divergence between developed economies and developing economies is stuck.
“Developed countries accounted for 63% of the people vaccinated globally, Africa our continent have only 16 per cent of these people fully vaccinated which is extremely low compared to 63 per cent of North America, 69 per cent for Asia and so on.
“We must not be complacent, next pandemic is just around the corner, God helps us.
“Africa must build what I call Healthcare Defense System. This must include the development of local vaccines and building quality healthcare infrastructure.
“While foreign companies are now establishing vaccine manufacturing companies in some parts of Africa, we must go well beyond that. We must encourage African owned vaccine manufacturing companies. Legislations should be designed to encourage this,” he urged.
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