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    • The AfDB has received $14m to help agriculture SMEs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia gain better access to credit, insurance, and investment capital
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

African Development Bank Group receives $14 million in first funding allocation under Global Agriculture and Food Security Program’s new private sector financing window

More than 1.5 million smallholder farmers and 500 agro-dealers and cooperatives are expected to benefit

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) has announced the first allocation from its new private sector financing window to the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org), providing $14 million in de-risking capital that aims to unlock $200 million from the private sector to enhance food security in low-income countries.…

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    • Dignitaries at the launch of the joint report “Investing in Innovative Food Systems Solutions in Challenging Contexts” in Abuja, including representatives from AfDB, WFP, IFPRI, Olam, and the Governors of Kano and Katsina States
    • L–R: Dr. Abdul Kamara, Director General for Nigeria, African Development Bank; Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security; His Royal Highness Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano; Mr. David Stevenson, Country Director and Representative, WFP Nigeria; Dr. Steven Were Omamo, Executive Director, IFPRI; and Mr. Ade Adefeko, Vice President, Olam, during a high-level panel session at the launch of the joint AfDB–WFP–IFPRI report “Investing in Innovative Food Systems Solutions in Challenging Contexts.”
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Rebuilding the breadbasket: African Development Bank, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launch report on innovative investment in food systems in Northern Nigeria

“Investing in Innovative Food Systems Solutions in Challenging Contexts,” provides a roadmap for revitalizing northern Nigeria’s food systems

The African Development Bank (https://AfDB.org), in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), has released a new study urging coordinated and innovative investments to strengthen food security and unlock the agricultural potential of northern Nigeria. Launched on the margins of…

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    • ADF-deputies at the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia
    • A production line at the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia, an ADF-supported initiative
    • An award-winning farmer in the Kafue town of Zambia talks about her transition to better yields
    • ADF deputies interacting with an engineering student at the University of Zambia
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

In Zambia, African Development Fund reshapes the country’s agriculture and education landscape

Zambian ministers credit African Development Fund for fertilizer self- sufficiency boost, increased capacity for 250,000 new skilled workers

Concessional financing from the African Development Fund (ADF) has been transformative for Zambia's agriculture and education sectors, while “anchoring peace, prosperity, and regional competitiveness.” ADF deputies, who are gathered in Zambia's capital for a meeting on the Fund's 17th replenishment, visited two project sites on Tuesday, 7 October - the…

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    • Panelists (left to right): Moderator Simon Winter, Abdilhakim Yusuf Ali Ainte, Director of the Food Security and Climate Department in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia, Roland Fomundam, President and CEO of Greenhouse Ventures, Felista Nyakio, Kenyan agripreneur, Rania Dagash-Kamara, Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships and Resource Mobilization of the World Food Programme, Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Martin Fregene, Director of the Agriculture and Agribusiness Department of the African Development Bank Group
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Forum for Resilience in Africa 2025: farmers must become providers of food aid, not recipients, say experts

The forum provides an opportunity to explore strategies for intensifying prevention efforts and stimulating peace-promoting investments on the continent

Agricultural experts attending the 6th edition of the Africa Resilience Forum (https://apo-opa.co/4h4wohb), held in Abidjan from 1–3 October, have urged African governments to place greater value on farmers — transforming them from recipients of food aid into providers. "Agriculture is a dominant activity in crisis zones. And we are told…

Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

African Development Bank Group Approves $22.8 Million Grant to Boost Mozambique's Rice Production and Build Climate Resilience

The project is designed to quadruple rice yields, from a ton per hectare to four tons per hectare, and raise annual household incomes from about $590 to $1,000

The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a $22.8 million grant from its concessional African Development Fund to strengthen Mozambique's rice value chain and enhance climate resilience, targeting 30,000 smallholder farmers across four provinces. The grant will fund the Rice Value Chain and Climate Resilience Project, which seeks to…

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    • African Development Bank Group Board Approves New Strategy to Drive Economic Diversification and Private Sector-led Inclusive Growth in Lesotho
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

African Development Bank Group Board Approves New Strategy to Drive Economic Diversification and Private Sector-led Inclusive Growth in Lesotho

The new strategy aims to address these vulnerabilities by unlocking private sector growth, creating sustainable employment, and building stronger institutions

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a new $209 million Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for Lesotho, setting out a roadmap to accelerate the country’s transition toward economic diversification, resilience, and inclusive growth over the next five years. The approval comes at a crucial…

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    • Ms. Fanta Njifondjou Oumarou, fish farmer in Limbé, happy to have received clarias broodstock
    • Simplice Nouma Mendel, a beneficiary living in Douala, talks to the monitoring team next to her fish tank
    • A net of clarias broodstock during distribution in Douala
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Cameroon: Fish farming makes a difference in the fight to improve living standards

This transformation has been driven by a strain of the African catfish (clarias), which has the advantages of rapid growth, low fat content, and low mortality

Along the coast and in south-western regions of Cameroon, fish ponds have become not only centres of production but also hubs of opportunity and economic transformation. A new dynamic is bringing hope to fish farmers, including young people and women, thanks to the Livestock and Fish Farming Value Chain Development…

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    • Durfo village community leader (far left) discusses project benefits with Zoba Maekel community engineer (centre) and Hailemikael Berhe (right), DRSLP project accountant during a field visit to a masonry dam in Durfo village, Zoba Maekel, central Eritrea
    • An aerial view of the Guritata dam, in Zoba Maekal, central Eritrea
    • Image of Meskel’s farmland, in Zoba Anseba, northern Eritrea
    • Ongoing community-led construction of a masonry dam, in Zoba Maekal, central Eritrea
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Transforming dust: How Eritrea’s dams are revitalizing the land

A network of masonry dams is slowly transforming Eritrea’s rural landscape, bringing clean water, food security, and new hope to remote farming communities once battered by drought

In villages across Eritrea’s dry interior, change is quietly flowing. Where seasonal rivers once surged and vanished without trace, hand-built dams now hold back precious water. Irrigation canals feed crops even in dry months. Eritrea, one of the Horn of Africa’s most drought-prone countries, has adopted a straightforward approach to…

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    • President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina; Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde; and Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in Ijaiye, Oyo State, Nigeria, 02 August 2025
    • President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, delivering his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in Ijaiye, Oyo State, Nigeria, 02 August 2025
    • President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina; Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde (3rd from left); Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari (2nd from left); Mrs Grace Adesina; Senior Special Adviser to Dr Adesina on Industrialisation, Prof Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka (2nd from right); and AfDB Director General for Nigeria, Dr. Abdul Kamara, at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in Ijaiye, Oyo State, Nigeria, 02 August 2025
    • President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina and the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in Ijaiye, Oyo State, Nigeria, 02 August 2025
    • Nigeria Expands Agro-Industrial Footprint with New Processing Hub in Oyo State
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Nigeria Expands Agro-Industrial Footprint with New Processing Hub in Oyo State

The Oyo site is the third to be developed under the national SAPZ program, and the first in southwest Nigeria

Oyo SAPZ will host up to 40 agro-processing industries, create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, and benefit half a million farmers. A great honour to do this on my last official visit to Nigeria as President of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) – Adesina Nigeria has launched a…

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    • In Nigeria, Oyo State’s fertile ground is set to meet mechanized ambition, as the state begins construction of its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone under Phase I of the SAPZ Programme
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Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB) |

Nigeria: African Development Bank to join groundbreaking ceremony of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone in Oyo State

Third groundbreaking in 2025 under Phase I of the Nigeria SAPZ Programme; first in the country’s southwest

The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Oyo State Government will be joined by the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Oyo State Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ). Headlining the ceremony, to be held 2 August 2025 in Ijaiye, Akinyele Local Government Area, will be Nigeria’s…