Africa spends more than $100 billion annually importing food it has the capacity to produce, exposing the huge value the continent continues to lose through weak local processing, storage, logistics and financing, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has said.

The minister’s warning formed part of a broader call at the ninth Agriculture Summit Africa (ASA) for African countries to move beyond increasing agricultural production and begin capturing more of the value generated across the food chain.

Delegates argued that producing more crops and livestock would have limited impact if farmers and businesses remain disconnected from processing facilities, markets and affordable long-term finance.

The Group Executive, Corporate and Investment Banking at Sterling Bank, Dele Faseemo, said the continent’s food challenge had become a national security concern.

Faseemo argued that sustainable sovereignty depended on food security as much as physical security, law and order.

He called for a shift from “potential to execution” and from fragmented interventions to coordinated action capable of producing measurable results.

The financing gap was particularly highlighted in the livestock sector, where the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, said conventional short-term lending was poorly suited to assets that require years to mature.

“We cannot finance biological assets as though they are fast-moving consumer goods,” Maiha said.

He said livestock contributes about $32 billion to Nigeria’s economy and could rise to $74 billion by 2035 under the country’s 10-year strategy, but argued that achieving the target would require investment in feedlots, abattoirs, cold chains and leather manufacturing.

Maiha also criticised the continued long-distance transportation of live animals, a practice he traced to 1912, saying more processing should take place within the country to retain value and create jobs.

Sterling Bank’s Group Head, Agric Finance and Solid Minerals, Dr Olushola Obikanye, said Africa’s challenge was not agricultural potential but its inability to convert that potential into productivity, value and economic power.

He said agriculture needed to be connected more effectively to finance, technology, infrastructure, processing, logistics and markets, rather than being treated primarily as a production activity.

The summit, themed “Building the Next Superpower: Africa’s Food Power Play,” also focused on intra-African trade, climate risks, cold-chain infrastructure and financing for smallholders, women and young people.

It attracted more than 12,000 physical and virtual participants, while its Deal Room facilitated nearly 100 matchmaking sessions as organisers sought to develop a $300 million pipeline of investable agricultural projects.

The summit also saw the launch of AgricHub, a platform designed to connect farmers and agribusinesses with financiers, markets and agricultural technology providers.