06 Aug 2017

A meeting of the African Caucus of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG), which was held in Gaborone last week, has agreed on a holistic approach to transform agriculture and agri-business on the continent.

The intention is for governments in Africa to develop the agriculture sector for purposes of jobs creation and fighting poverty.

The two-day meeting, which ended on August 4, released a declaration document stating that the transformation of the agriculture sector will entail policies, technologies, private sector participation, value chains, sustainable job creation for youth and women, as well as agriculture infrastructure financing and financial inclusion.

The document pointed that public spending in agriculture by African governments was still below the level required to transform the sector and increase its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product.

The document further said the current approach to move from subsistence to commercial agriculture was inadequate.

However, it stated that African Governors of the IMF and WBG committed to enhancing the volume of investments and efficiency of expenditure in support of transforming agriculture and aggro-processing.

The memorandum, which will be presented to head of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, called for support of Africa's agriculture transformation agenda from the World Bank Group, with a particular focus on strengthening ICTs to facilitate access to finance, technologies, land acquisition and markets at affordable cost to smallholder farmers.

The meeting was attended by ministers responsible for finance and economic planning and governors of central banks in Africa.

Addressing the press on August 4, African Caucus and Minister of Finance and Economic Development chairperson, Mr Kenneth Matambo said the meeting was held to  discuss issues of concern in the continent.

“We discussed issues that we would like to raise when we have the opportunity to meet with the heads of IMF and world bank,” he said.

He said the meeting focused on the role of agriculture in Africa.

“We had a topic on agriculture policies and reforms. We have policies, but we can come up with even better policies. We also discussed the issue of reforms of agriculture in the continent. We discussed the topic of agricultural technologies and value chains,” he said.

In the area of job creation, he said while they talked about job creation arising from the development of agriculture in general terms, they were also specific about job creation in respect of women and the youth.

“In the case of Botswana when we talk about unemployment nowadays we are concerned even more so about unemployment of the youth,” he said.

He also said they talked about financing of agricultural infrastructure on the continent.

He said African Governors will meet in October to adopt the final version of the memorandum and present it to a meeting of heads of IMF and the World Bank in Washington to see how the two institutions can assist the Africa and individual states in developing agriculture. ENDS