Africa must move beyond producing raw commodities and begin to own the processing, storage, trade and finance that create value from its agricultural products.
Ministers, investors and industry leaders stated this at the ninth edition of the Agriculture Summit Africa (ASA) held at the weekend in Abuja.
They also said the financial system must be redesigned to suit agriculture, where investments often take years to mature.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said Africa spends more than $100 billion annually on food imports that it has the capacity to produce.
He said the figure showed how much value the continent was losing by exporting raw commodities and importing finished products at higher prices.
The summit, held under the theme, “Building the Next Superpower: Africa’s Food Power Play,” sought to turn Africa’s agricultural potential into investable opportunities.
Co-convened by Sunbeth Global Concepts, the two-day event attracted more than 12,000 physical and virtual participants from development finance, agribusiness, research and technology.
The 2026 edition targeted a $300 million investment pipeline and featured nearly 100 matchmaking sessions through its Deal Room.
Dele Faseemo, Group Executive, Corporate and Investment Banking at Sterling Bank, said food had become a major security issue.
Faseemo called for a shift from “potential to execution” and from ideas to scalable solutions, saying agricultural interventions must produce measurable results.
The discussions covered food sovereignty, intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), climate risks, cold-chain infrastructure, technology, data and financing for smallholder farmers, women and young people.
A key concern was that gains made on farms are often lost after harvest because farmers have little control over storage, transport, processing and markets.
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, also called for financing models that recognise the long cycle of livestock production.
“We cannot finance biological assets as though they are fast-moving consumer goods,” he said. Maiha said livestock contributes about $32 billion to Nigeria’s economy and could reach $74 billion by 2035 under the country’s 10-year livestock strategy.
He said this would require investment in feedlots, modern abattoirs, cold chains and leather manufacturing.
According to him, Nigeria must also reduce the long-distance transportation of live animals, a practice he traced to 1912, and instead develop systems that allow more value to be retained within the country.
Sterling Bank’s Group Head of Agric Finance and Solid Minerals, Dr Olushola Obikanye, said Africa’s main challenge was not a lack of land or agricultural potential.
He said the challenge was converting that potential into productivity, value and economic power.
Obikanye said agriculture should no longer be seen simply as a sector for producing food.
It should connect farmers to finance, technology, infrastructure, processing, logistics and markets, he said.
“The opportunity is not simply to produce more food; it is to create and capture more value,” he said.
He said Africa must move from commodities to competitive industries and from fragmented interventions to integrated systems.
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