Food security is a critical issue for Africa today. Despite a rapid population growth rate, the continent struggles with declining agricultural productivity and high food prices. How can Africa feed itself sustainably? To answer this question, AFEX has launched a US$100 million 10-year bond called the Food Security Fund (FSF) to support Africa's food security vision by producing an additional three million MT of food annually.
Photo: IFAD/Edward Echwalu
One focus of the Food Security Fund will be to explore and optimize climate-smart innovations and high-yield agronomy protocols to ensure that more food is produced and that land is used efficiently. A significant portion of the funding will be allocated to building storage infrastructure, alongside the financing of 250,000 hectares of land for commercial and smallholder farming, initially consisting of 30,000 hectares in the Nigerian states of Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Cross River and the Federal Capital Territory, before covering markets across East and West Africa.
The Food Security Fund is adopting the United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Bonds framework to raise capital that will foster progress in Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2 within Nigeria, with additional impact across Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. The Fund action plan will bring together producers, processors, capital market players, investors, and other impact-driven stakeholders, facilitating partnerships at regional and country levels to build the physical and technology-enabled infrastructure for Africa’s food systems.
