As a young student who attended high school in the village, I witnessed the high correlation of agricultural performance with education. Several of my classmates were children of farmers. I noticed then that when the agricultural season was good, they stayed in school and performed well, but when the season was poor, several dropped out or attended intermittently.

The decision by Chief Awolowo to start with the transformation of the rural economy was a very sound policy. The establishment of farm estates, and the expansion of rural roads, supported by professionally run marketing boards helped stabilise the prices of farm produce. It is worth noting that the prudent fiscal management of the cocoa revenues powered the economies of the states that then constituted the Western Region. These revenues allowed the government to embark on an unprecedented idea – free education and free basic health care services. It was common then to hear the phrase “Agbe lo ba” (farmers are kings), uttered with great pride.

We must give new life to our rural areas. If Chief Awolowo could do this in the 1960s, there is no reason why rural economies today should be immersed in extreme poverty. Clearly, rural economies have been abandoned, by politicians, planning and policies. Today, they have become zones of economic misery. The pauperisation of rural economies is what is causing the implosion of many countries across Africa. When rural economies (the fulcrum of the African society) falter, nations falter. This leads to the spread of anarchy, banditry, and terrorism. This troika of social disruption takes advantage of the economic misery to entrench themselves.

The transformation of rural economies must therefore be structural, systemic, strategic and comprehensive. Doing so, means agriculture must be turned into a wealth creating sector.

I aggressively pursued this philosophy when I served as minister of agriculture and rural development of Nigeria from 2011 to 2015. Many call this period the “farm revolution” years, as Nigeria witnessed an impressive transformation of its agricultural sector.

With farmer-centric policies, we delivered improved seeds and fertilisers for 15 million farmers. We delivered millions of cocoa seedlings across southern Nigeria. We delivered a cotton transformation across the north. We provided millions of oil palm seedlings to farm estates, including small farmers and large farm estates, across the East, South and West. We accelerated the delivery of improved rice seeds across Nigeria and sparked a rice revolution that transformed several regions across Nigeria.

Sound public policies transform the lives of people. I fondly remember one of my farm trips in the company of the then Governor of Kebbi State, H.E. Usman Dakingari. Amazed by the revolution happening, I recall him saying, “Minister, thank you, we no longer measure our rice yields in hectares of land, but in kilometers.”

Rural economies boomed. Local well packaged rice took over the market. The price of rice at the time was N6,000 per bag, which helped to stem food price inflation. Unfortunately, today, that same bag of rice, just nine years later, is N77,000 per bag. That 12-fold price increase unfortunately puts rice, a basic staple, beyond the reach of millions of people.

In several parts of Africa today, farm revolutions are happening at scale, with the support of the African Development Bank. Over the last seven years, we have invested over $8.5 billion in agriculture, which has impacted 250 million people.

At the core of the Africa-wide strategy to revamp rural economies and turn them into zones of economic prosperity is the development of special agro-industrial processing zones across the continent.

These zones are being provided with critical supportive infrastructure, including water, roads, processing infrastructure and logistics. The African Development Bank and its partners are providing $1.4 billion for the development of 25 of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones in eleven countries.

Right here in Nigeria, we are developing these zones in 8 states with $518 million. The second phase of the programme in Nigeria, which will cover 23 more states, will be financed with $1 billion. The Bank and partners recently launched a $3 billion Alliance for Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones.

Feeding Africa is serious business.
To ensure that the continent can feed itself and achieve food sovereignty, we organised the Feed Africa Summit in January of 2023, which had 34 African Heads of State and the President of Ireland in attendance, as well as global leaders. In what is a remarkable global development, we were able to secure $72 billion in financial commitments towards the delivery of national food compacts.

Second, Nigeria needs health care for all. Smart governments provide universal basic health coverage for their citizens. Africa loses $2.6 trillion annually in productivity, due to sicknesses and diseases. Just as every nation has a national defense system to protect its citizens against all forms of aggression, the same is true for health care systems. A nation without a sound health care system is a nation that is defenseless against the invasion of all forms of disease or epidemics.

Covid-19 exposed the weakness of Africa’s health systems.
While developed economies spent $19 trillion in fiscal stimulus programmes, approximately 19 per cent of the world’s GDP, Africa spent only $89 billion. Africa’s urgent need for basic vaccines was pushed to the bottom of global vaccines supply chains. At a time when Africa was unable to provide one basic shot of vaccine, developed countries were providing second, third and more booster shots. It was alarming watching an unprotected Africa grapple with this insidious virus. Some even projected that as many as 3 million Africans would die from the pandemic.

Africa had just two testing centers, no medical gloves, no face masks, no medications, and no vaccines. The African Development Bank immediately put in place a $10 billion facility to support African countries in their fight against the pandemic.

What is not acceptable or sustainable is an Africa that imports 70-80 per cent of its medicines and produces just 1 per cent of its vaccines. The health security of Africa’s 1.4 billion people cannot be subjugated to global supply chains or the generosity of others.

That’s why the African Development Bank also launched a $3 billion programme to revamp Africa’s pharmaceutical industries and why it established the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation to support access to proprietary technologies from global pharmaceutical companies.

The bank also launched another $3 billion programme to develop quality health infrastructure across the continent, with special emphasis on primary health care systems, which if well fixed can assure basic health care for hundreds of millions of people.

We will continue to invest heavily in Nigeria to support its pharmaceutical industry and develop better health infrastructure. It is imperative that Nigeria secures the health of all its population. This will require ensuring that no citizen travels more than a few kilometers to find a health care center. The widespread use of mobile health centers, e-health facilities, the digitalisation of health systems, especially in all primary health care centers, health insurance policies for all, including innovative micro-health insurance pay-as-you-go systems, will capture the bulk of the population that is in the informal sector.

Third, Nigeria needs education for all. Nigeria accounts for 15 per cent of the total population of out-of-school children, according to UNICEF, with over 10.2 million at the primary school level, and 8.1 million at the Junior Secondary School. This is not a gold medal Nigeria should be proud of.

The problem is both acute and alarming in Northern Nigeria. Urgent public policies, coupled with community sensitisation and incentives for schooling are needed, if this trend is to be reversed. Public incentives such as free and compulsory primary and secondary education should be put in place, along with massive investments in training and better salaries for teachers, building quality and safe classrooms, and school feeding programmes.

A well-educated citizenry is critical for technological growth and development, and for fostering creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and global competitiveness. We do not have a choice. A highly educated Nigeria is not an option. It is an imperative.

With only 1 per cent of the population enrolled, Nigeria is currently not educating enough of its people at the university level. The poor funding of universities, a lack of basic infrastructure, poor incentives for faculty and staff, and incessant strikes due to wage disputes, have almost crippled the university system.

As a result, there is a mass exodus out of Nigerian universities, with 128,770 Nigerian students “Japa-ing” (moving) to study in UK Universities alone, between 2015 and 2022, according to the Higher Education Agency of the United Kingdom.

The mass exodus of students pales when compared to those of skilled professionals. From doctors to engineers, architects, lawyers, IT specialists, bankers, and medical technicians, Nigeria is witnessing a massive depletion of its human capital. This human capital hemorrhage will slow down economic growth, performance and overall development and competitiveness of the economy.

While one might argue that a growing diaspora is good as they send home some $ billions which is higher than the oil export earnings, this clearly is not the way to develop sustainably.

Nations that develop do all they can to keep their best human capital at home, and additionally source skills from elsewhere with flexible immigration and labour policies. We must make Nigeria a viable place for people to stay, and not a place to run away from. The same applies for other countries.

I refuse to believe that the future of Nigeria’s and Africa’s youth lie in Europe, North America, Asia or anywhere else.
I firmly believe that their future lies in a rapidly developing Nigeria, and Africa, that is able to generate quality jobs with competitive wages and a decent quality of life for millions of youths. That is why the African Development Bank Group and partners have provided $614 million to Nigeria for the i-DICE programme to support the development of digital and creative enterprises, which are expected to create 6.3 million jobs and add an estimated $6.4 billion to the Nigerian economy.

To support the businesses of young Nigerians, the African Development Bank Group is also planning to establish a Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank in Nigeria which will provide financial instruments to create youth-based wealth.
To be continued.
Dr Adesina is the President of the African development Bank Group. Being the speech he delivered as the recipient of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership Award 2023, recently.