African Development Bank Commits 13 Billion Dollars to Transform Continental Food Security
The African Development Bank Group has committed $13 billion across more than 400 programs in 54 African countries to bolster agricultural productivity, the organization reported. The initiative has reached over 64 million beneficiaries throughout agricultural value chains, with women accounting for approximately 34% of those participants. Dr. Martin Fregene, African Development Bank Group Office-in-Charge, Agriculture, Human and Social Development Vice Presidency and Director of Agriculture and Agro-industry, and Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society, detailed the investments ahead of World Food Day, highlighting the strategic push to connect producers with modern technologies, financing, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
Digital Platforms and Mobile Savings Expand Access for Women Farmers
In Mali, groundnut farmer Naba Keita increased her crop yields and earnings through a mobile savings model supported by the bank’s Agri-food Small and Medium Enterprise Catalytic Financing Mechanism. Keita is one of more than 162,500 women across Mali, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire who gained access to the myAgro digital platform. Her enhanced earnings boosted her capacity to pay for household needs and gained her acknowledgment among female figures in her community. Furthermore, engineer Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya used artificial intelligence innovation supported by the bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative to launch the Halisi Livestock app. The software creates a digital identity for livestock, giving rural farmers a reliable way to count and value herds to secure institutional bank loans.
Climate-Resilient Crops and Processing Zones Add Value to Local Harvests
Agripreneur Erisa Danlani shifted from planting maize to wheat in Nigeria, boosting her harvest profits by 200% through the Nigeria Agriculture Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket program, which is part of the bank’s $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Facility. To capture more agricultural value locally, the bank is investing in infrastructure such as the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone in Benin, operated by ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms. This hub allows agricultural products like cashews to be processed in women-majority centers rather than exported abroad in raw form. Meanwhile, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation program has delivered heat-tolerant wheat, drought-tolerant maize, and high-yielding rice to more than 12 million farmers, generating an estimated 25 million tonnes of additional agricultural production.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bank Agricultural Initiatives
How does the Gender Marker System influence project funding?
The system is a digital dashboard that assesses how bank projects incorporate gender equality and women’s empowerment into their objectives. In 2025, 96% of all bank projects achieved Gender Marker Category I or II status, designating gender equality as a principal objective or intended outcome.
What specific areas does the water security initiative target?
Small-scale irrigation is backed by the National Integrated Rural Water Sector Project in Mauritania to boost income-generating work for youth and women. This infrastructure reduces the time women spend collecting water while supporting fresh produce production and livestock activities.
What alternative livelihoods are provided in mining communities?
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a bank-supported program helps families in communities affected by child labor in cobalt mining to develop alternative sources of income. More than 10,500 young parents, over half of them women, have received support to move into agribusiness activities.
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