Farmers Review Africa March/April 2020 Farmers Review Africa March - April 2020 digital ( | Page 7

NEWS
Akinwumi Adesina,President of the African Development Bank, left, with Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone to count on African Development Bank to help build
resilient economy, restore self-sufficiency in rice production
S
ierra Leone will look to the African
Development
Bank
to
stimulate
agribusiness development in the country
with a focus on rice production, its president
Maada Bio told a visiting delegation led by its
president Akinwumi Adesina. Commenting on the country’s capacity to enhance
local production, and the export of rice, Sierra
Leone’s staple food, Adesina said, “Sierra Leone
should not be spending over $200 million yearly
importing rice because its climatic conditions are
generally favorable for rice production.”
Adesina began a two-day visit to Sierra Leone on
Wednesday, during which he will hold meetings
to discuss curbing malnutrition, creating skills
and jobs for young people, rapidly scaling up
economic diversification and restoring the
country to self-sufficiency in rice production. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry data, total rice demand in 2018 was
1.6 million metric tons, against local production
of 700,000 metric tons. In July 2019, the Bank
approved the $11 million Agribusiness and
Rice Value Chain Support Project to stimulate
agribusiness development in the country with a
focus on rice.
“Our government is working hard to recover the
economy, which was on the brink of collapse.
We want to focus on economic diversification,
with agriculture as the main driver,” President Bio
observed, in a meeting with the Bank delegation.
“We are serious about developing this country
and will appreciate the Bank’s support to realize
our dreams. Infrastructure is an enabler for
development, so we appreciate what the Bank
is doing in Sierra Leone,” Bio said, identifying a
productive workforce as a top national priority as
well as jumpstarting economic activities in rural
areas, where 73.9% of Sierra Leone’s poor live.
Sierra Leone also sought the Bank’s support for
the implementation of its free quality education
programme, which aims to enhance human
capital development and facilitate economic
transformation.
Adesina encouraged the country to explore the
Bank’s Africa Investment Forum to elicit investor
interest for the proposed Lungi–Freetown bridge.
The project will link the capital city, Freetown, to
the country’s sole international airport, which is
presently accessible by ferry or helicopter.
The Bank also expressed keenness to support the
development of critical infrastructure in the West
African country and to open up space for greater
private sector participation in the economy.
Adesina said the Bank would deploy the African
Legal Support Facility to help the country better
manage its natural resources.
Adesina commended President Bio for his
decision to join the African Leaders for Nutrition
as a nutrition champion in his country, and for
Africa. “Sierra Leone is an important country to
the Bank,” We will support you to build a more
robust and resilient economy, to transform the
lives of your people. That is our role as a bank,
putting people at the heart of development.”
“The Bank’s footprint is everywhere in Sierra
Leone,” Chief Minister David Francis told Adesina.
“The Bank has remained committed to the post-
Ebola reconstruction. You have remained a
faithful partner, and the country is grateful.”
Sierra Leone was one of the Bank Group’s
founding members, and the Bank has financed
projects there since 1967, to a cumulative sum of
$758 million.
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