Adesina: A digital farmer as an ICON

 Emeka Ibemere

He may not have carried hoe for a day or he may have done that while growing up in his rustic community of Ogun State as a child, but today, he has shown the resemblance of his father, the senior Akinwumi that he is truly the son of a farmer.

Welcome to the world of Akinwumi Adesina, immediate past Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and current President of the African Development Bank, AFDB.

Adesina while coming on board as Nigerian’s Minister in 2010, came with his vast knowledge of Agriculture in an increasingly digital world and reshape Nigeria’s quest for increase in productivity which put Nigeria today, as one of the greatest emerging agricultural nations.

Until his appointment in 2010, he was Vice President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and it was on this pedestal that he was able to introduce revolution in agriculture and declare emergency on the sector changing the economic policy that relied wholly oil.

 Nigeria is a country that has over the past years neglected farming and refused to diversify her economy from mono-oil economy to agro-economy thereby refusing to create multiple jobs and alleviated the sufferings of the peasant farmers. But after five years of his era as a minister, Adesina gave hope to the both mechanized and rustic farmers that economic power resides with them.

On May 28, 2015, Adesina was elected as the President of the African Development Bank. Though he will begin his tenure on September 1, 2015, Adesina becomes the eight presidents in the organization's history, and the first Nigerian to hold the post.

He was born to Nigerian farmer in Ogun State and received a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife Obafemi Awolowo University and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University in1988.

He worked at the Rockefeller Foundation since winning a fellowship from the Foundation as a senior scientist in 1988.

 From 1999 to 2003 he was the representative of the Foundation for the Southern African area. From 2003 until 2008 to the present he was an associate director for food security.

In July 2007, he was awarded the YARA Prize for the African Green Revolution in Oslo while in 2008; Purdue University’s College of Agriculture gave him their Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award. In 2010 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Franklin and Marshall College which was followed with another award by Forbes African Person of the Year in 2013. On May 5, 2015, he was awarded an Extraordinary Achievement Award by Silverbird Television, Nigeria. Adesina had a strong background as vice president of policy and partnerships at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), and a decade at the Rockefeller Foundation.

He was appointed by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon as one of 17 global leaders to spearhead the Millennium Development Goals. These were the experiences he brought into bear to be game changer in the agric sector.

Before coming into the helm of affairs to supervise the ministry of agriculture, Nigeria had historical failures in their attempt to reform agriculture and make Nigeria food basket of Africa.

 But today, his elevation as AFDB President has shown that Adesina has change that cause of failure and has moved Nigeria from being an only oil producing country to be one of the biggest member of the league of agriculture producers.

Prior to discovery of oil in 1958, Nigeria was one of the most promising agricultural producers in the world. Reports said that between 1962 and 1968, export crops were the country’s main foreign exchange earner. The country was number one globally in palm oil exports, well ahead of Malaysia and Indonesia, and exported 47 percent of all groundnuts, putting it ahead of the US and Argentina. But its status as an agricultural powerhouse declined, and steeply.

While Nigeria once provided 18 percent of the global production of cocoa, second in the world in the 1960s, that figure is now down to eight percent. And while the country produces 65 percent of tomatoes in West Africa, it is now the largest importer of tomato paste.   As Minister, Adesina remembered with nostalgia how the country lost its enviable position among agro-nations

 “Nigeria is known for nothing else than oil and it is so sad, because we never used to have oil – all we used to have was agriculture,” he said.

“And that is why we had a rising poverty situation. We were having growth but without robust growth able to impact millions of people because it is not connecting to agriculture.”

According to experts, the ugly picture was why there is absolute poverty is rising, with estimated 100 million people living on less than a $1.25 a day. The National Bureau of Statistics says 60.9 percent of Nigerians in 2010 were living in absolute poverty, up from 54.7 percent in 2004.

Today, Nigeria has transitioned from being a self-sufficient country in food to being a net importer, spending $11bn on imports of rice, fish and sugar. “It just makes absolutely no sense to me at all,” says Mr Adesina. “My job is to change that.” And he did.

As an Agriculture Minister, Adesina seems well placed to act on what lies within reach, combining a digital knowledge of Nigeria’s agriculture sector and brought change within a space of five years.

According to AFDB President, what needed to be done was a shift in mindset.

“We were not looking at agriculture through the right lens. We were looking at agriculture as a developmental activity, like a social sector in which you manage poor people in rural areas. But agriculture is not a social sector. Agriculture is a business. Seed is a business, fertiliser is a business, storage, value added, logistics and transport - it is all about business,” he stated. According to Adesina, Nigeria needs to change the sector’s image by putting it at the forefront of national development.

“Agriculture is the future of Nigeria. And agriculture that is modernised, that is productive, that is competitive. We must be a global player,” he said.

Ex-minister for Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also explained positively about Mr Adesina’s reforms to date, especially in cleaning up the corrupt fertiliser mafia.

Adesina was able to break the mafia -cartel in the fertilizer by taking government out from directly participating in the delivery system for fertiliser; but leaves that to the private sector and only provides the subsidy. This change has tackled 40 years of corruption, and ended it.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala says it has been easier to work with Mr Adesina than previous ministers. “It is not only about doling out subsidies which do not reach farmers,” she says. “That was frustrating for me the first time I was finance minister. Now he came and cleaned up the fertiliser issues.”

Reports said Nigeria is now seeking to add 20m metric tonnes to the domestic food supply by 2015 and to create 3.5 million jobs through agriculture.  The report further said that this requires more classy approach about the value addition of individual crops, especially cassava.

“We are the largest producer of cassava in the world, at 40m metric tonnes, but I want us to become the largest processor of cassava as well,” Mr Adesina claims.

 “We can focus on using cassava for starch, dry cassava chips for export to China, cassava flour to replace some of the wheat flour that we are importing. So we are restructuring the space for the private sector to add value to every single thing.”

 “You find that only two percent of all banks lending in Nigeria goes into agriculture, a sector that is 40 percent of GDP and 70 percent of employment. The reason was because banks could not find the money trail in the agriculture sector”, Mr Adesina explained.

Adesina’s reform started with banks to look at the opportunities offered by agriculture, which in part follows the reforms implemented by the ex-minister to root out corruption and improve efficiency.

It was gathered that earlier last year, agriculture ministry developed a facility with the Central Bank of Nigeria, helped by donor assistance from the UK, German and US development agencies which was called Nirsal, an agri-business initiative that provides risk management, financing, trading, and strategic solutions.

Reports said the $50m facility, which leverages $3.5bn, reduces the risk of agricultural lending by providing credit risk guarantees and brokerage services to buyers and sellers of agricultural commodities, including structured buyer forums. It was also gathered that it selectively buys on its own account to bring stability to markets. In addition, Nirsal was to offer advice designed to connect suppliers with downstream buyers. 

“With banks you cannot beg them to lend because they are taking care of their people’s money, so you create the value and they see the value and lend,” he said.

Mr Adesina was said to have worked directly with the managing directors and chief risk officers of Nigeria’s banks in order to tackle what he saw as a misperception of risk, at least if the sector’s flaws, including inefficiencies and corruption that it could be cleaned up. “What we have shown the banks is that agriculture gives as high and competitive a rate of return as other sectors if structured properly. But for banks to lend, we had to fix the agricultural value chain. Now the banks are all exploding on agriculture in Nigeria,” he stated.

Aliyu Tanko from BBC Hausa says Mr Adesina introduced more transparency into the supply and distribution of fertiliser, which had previously been marred by massive corruption.

It would be recalled that in January, Mr Adesina announced a scheme to hand out 10 million mobile phones to farmers to "drive an agriculture revolution" so as to enable them find out the latest market information.  It was gathered that the phones are to be used to get vouchers for seeds and fertiliser. Mr Adesina was chosen ahead of some of Africa's most prominent businesspeople: Aliko Dangote and Jim Ovia, also from Nigeria; South Africa's Patrice Motsepe; and Zimbabwe's Strive Masiyiwa.