The AfDB has stepped up its attempts to change the rice industry in West Africa.

Compiled By: Prince Henry Danquah, Bora Capital Advisors Ltd

The African Development Bank has intensified efforts to transform West Africa’s rice sector, unveiling a regional investment strategy aimed at reducing the region’s heavy reliance on imports and unlocking large-scale private capital for agricultural industrialisation.

Speaking at the West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable in Accra, Richard Kwaku Ofori-Mante warned that the region’s annual importation of nearly 12 million metric tonnes of rice, valued at more than $3.5 billion, remains a major economic and food security risk.

His remarks come as governments across West Africa seek to strengthen food sovereignty following years of global supply disruptions, rising commodity prices and climate-related shocks that have exposed the risks of dependence on imported staples.

Source: newsthemegh.com