June 29, 2025 – Sen. Abubakar Kyari, Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, chaired a key session on Agri-Food Financing at the AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial in Rome.
Speaking during the high-level session, he stressed that “Africa holds 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, yet our small agribusinesses, who grow the food, get less than 10% of the financing. That’s not just an economic gap, it’s a human one.”
He emphasized the real-life impact, saying, “It’s the rural woman who can’t scale her business. The young farmer turned away at the bank. We must change this.”
Kyari highlighted urgent reforms, calling for “finance that targets the ‘missing middle’, SMEs like processors and logistics firms,” while also pushing for “stronger rural banks, cooperatives, and agri-insurance.”
He also pointed to scalable solutions through blended finance models, explaining that they must “reflect real-life local needs.”
Referencing successful ongoing programs like LIFE-ND and the Value Chain Development Programme, he said, “these efforts aren’t charity—they’re partnerships. And if we truly want to go far, we must go together.”
The minister’s call underscores Nigeria’s strategic role in transforming African agriculture.
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