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| President Goodluck Jonathan 5th left with others African Leaders at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
Statement By DR GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR President Federal Republic of Nigeria
ON
THE THEME OF AGRICULTURE
AND FOOD SECURITY AT
THE 22ND ORDINARY
SUMMIT OF THE AFRICAN UNION (AU) ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA THURSDAY, 30TH JANUARY 2014
· Mr.
Chairman, I wish to congratulate the African Union for making agriculture a
priority for our 22nd Ordinary Summit.
· This
year marks the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which was launched with the central
goal of making the continent self sufficient in food.
· We
must not depend on others to feed our continent. We must feed ourselves, and do
so with pride. For Africa cannot be truly free, until it can feed itself.
Greater priority must continue to be given to food security.
· Africa must
become the solution to feeding the world. Over 65% of the arable land left to
feed 9 billion people in the world is in Africa
· But
for this to happen, we must change how we view agriculture. Africa must end
decades of approach of treating agriculture as a development program.
Agriculture is not a development program. Agriculture is a business.
We must focus on value chains, stop exporting raw materials, and instead focus
on high-value-added products.
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| President Goodluck Jonathan 5th left with others African Leaders at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
· Mr.
Chairman, this is why Nigeria is strongly pursuing an aggressive program to
unlock the potential of its agriculture. Nigeria launched the Agricultural
Transformation Agenda in 2011, with the goal of increasing our domestic food
production by an additional 20 million MT and creating 3.5 million jobs by
2015.
· So
much has been achieved. We embarked on a national registration of our farmers,
and by last year we had registered 10 million farmers. This allows us to have
biometric information on them, so that our policies can be better targeted to
them.
· To
ensure that our farmers get farm inputs directly, we developed theelectronic
wallet system, which allows farmers to get their subsidized seeds and
fertilizers directly via electronic coupons on their mobile phones. The
e-wallet system has brought in transparency and helped to sanitize fertilizer
subsidy and distribution.
· Within
two years, 6 million farmers have received their farm inputs directly via their
mobile phones. This has improved the food security of 30 million persons in
farm households. We expect to reach 10 million farmers with the electronic
wallet by this year, which will improve the food security of 50 million
persons.
· Mr. Chairman,
Nigeria is ready to share its successful experience on this with other
countries, so this novel approach can be used all across Africa to empower
farmers.
· Within
two years, our farmers produced an additional 16 million metric tons of food,
which is over 70% of our target of 20 million metric tons for 2015.
· Nigeria met
the MDG goal One on hunger and was given due recognition by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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| President Goodluck Jonathan 4th left with others African Leaders at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29thJanuary 2014 STATE HOUSE PHOTOS |
· Our
approach of treating agriculture as a business is paying off. About five
billion US dollars ($ US 5 billion) has come from our local private sector into
fertilizer manufacturing. An additional 4 billion US dollars ($ US 4 billion)
has come in from private sector in the agricultural value chains. Development
partners have put in close to $ US 2 billion in support of Nigeria’s
Agricultural Transformation Agenda.
· Nigerian
banks are lending more to agriculture. We recapitalized the Bank of
Agriculture. We launched a national risk sharing facility to reduce the risk of
lending by banks. Within two years, the share of agriculture in the total
lending portfolio of banks in Nigeria increased from close to zero percent to
about 5 percent.
· Mr.
Chairman, as the African Union embarks on this Year of Agriculture, we must
recognize the role of our women farmers, and arise with bold policies to
support them. Agriculture is the future for Africa and that future can only be
secured if we support women farmers. Access to finance and secure land rights
is crucial for women farmers, and we know that women have higher loan repayment
rates than men. Improving the status of women will improve Africa’s status.
· We
must engage on a bold initiative for women farmers of Africa. Today, therefore,
I call for an Affirmative Action on Finance for Women Farmers. Under
this affirmative action, 30% of all banks lending to agriculture in Africa
should go to women farmers. I call on the African Union to support
this affirmative action, so that we turn around the fortunes of millions of our
hard working women farmers all across Africa.
· I
thank you.
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| President Goodluck Jonathan left and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
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| President Goodluck Jonathan left and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
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| President Goodluck Jonathan, left FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva, and Nigeria Agric Minister Dr. Kinwumi Adeshina at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29thJan 2014 |
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| President Goodluck Jonathan,left and the Executive Secretary United Nation Economic Commission for Africa ECADr. Carlos Lopes at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
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| President Goodluck Jonathan,left and the Executive Secretary United Nation Economic Commission for Africa ECADr. Carlos Lopes at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29th Jan 2014 |
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| President Goodluck Jonathan right and the
President of Ecowas Amb. Kadre Quedraogo at a Meeting on the
Ecowas State High Way at the Opening Session of the 22nd Ordinary
session of the assembly of African Union Heads of Government in
Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday 29thJan 2014 |
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