Ghanaian Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta Lauds AfDB’s Emergency Food Plan For Africa

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Ghanaian Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has applauded Africa Emergency Food Production Plan proposed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to mitigate the current food crisis in the continent.

With the disruption of food supplies arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, Africa faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food, especially wheat, maize, and soybeans imported from the two countries.

The plan is anchored on the provision of certified seeds of climate-adapted varieties to 20 million African farmers, would result in the rapid production of 38 million tons of food across Africa over the next two years. The Bank has pledged to invest $1.3 billion in the plan’s implementation.

The minister made the commendation while addressing journalists at a press conference to publicize the AfDB’s upcoming annual meetings in Ghana.

He said the plan is designed to assist farmers, especially with fertilisers, adding that it will boost incomes of the country’s farmers in the lucrative cocoa industry.

He noted that throughout Africa food prices are currently around 34 percent higher, crude oil prices 60 percent and global inflation is affecting all countries, with inflation in Ghana standing at around 23.6 percent.

“The newly poor in Africa has increased by 55 million and approximately 35 million formal jobs are at risk. This toxic mix of challenges exist even as we try to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic”, he said.

Describing the Bank’s Annual General Meetings as seminal, in the context of a world seeking to rebalance in the wake of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, the minister observed that “41 African economies face dreaded three concurrent crises -rising food prices, rosing energy prices and tightening financial conditions, the three ‘f’s”

Ken Ofori-Atta said the hosting of the meeting in Ghana is long overdue, noting that the Bank is poised to tackle these problems frontally.

“In the African Development Bank, we have a well-positioned institution with the convening power and a network of technical and financial resources to significantly contribute toward finding robust solutions to some of these intractable problems that we are experiencing”, he added.

Ken Ofori-Atta also lauded his country’s partnership with the AfDB in its development trajectory, adding that through their enduring partnership with the Bank, Ghana has undertaken significant infrastructure development.

He also noted other areas of collaboration, including education, modernisation of agriculture and financing for small businesses.

“It is a good time for this AGM to happen. It could lead to some really important change in how the global financial architecture is tackled, so that we can get the resources we need to be able to transform the continent”, he further explained.

The minister also noted that during the annual meetings, scheduled from May 23-27 in the Ghanaian capital Accra, there would be a showcase of products and services of 13 indigenous industrialists and 5 fintechs on the sidelines.

Ofori-Atta also touched on the replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), the African Development Bank Group’s concessional lending arm. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Fund.

“One of the key issues is how to push our non-regionals to accept ADF going to the capital markets to leverage the $25 billion equity so we can get more resources”, he stressed.

He said the ADF would benefit from cheaper interest rates, should it turn to the capital markets. Donors and multilateral institutions, according to him, cannot meet the development demands Africa has.