Former Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), has called on African leaders to make farmers the centre of their agricultural plans, adding that no amount of technology can replace the need for strong, consistent support to those who actually grow the food.
Speaking at the opening of the African Conference on Agricultural Technologies (ACAT) in Kigali, Rwanda, Jonathan urged African governments to focus less on short-term projects and more on long-term investments that will directly benefit farmers, especially the women and youths.
He said African countries must make it easier for farmers to access loans by reducing the risks that banks face when lending to the sector.
“If governments do not support farmers, it will be difficult to produce enough food for our population,” Jonathan said. “We must de-risk agriculture lending. That is why I believe central banks must lead the way by encouraging commercial banks to lend to farmers.”
The former Nigeria’s President from who served from 2010 to 2015, highlighted that his administration introduced the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and according to him, the initiative, backed by $350 million, helped raise the share of bank loans to agriculture from 0.5% to 5% within a few years.
While praising innovations like drones, AI tools, and satellite imaging for their role in modern farming, Jonathan warned that technology without farmer-focused policies would not solve Africa’s food crisis.
“No country or institution can transform agriculture alone,” he said. “We must work together across borders, across sectors.”
GEJ also encouraged African countries to commit more of their national budgets to agriculture, as promised in the Maputo and Malabo Declarations, which recommend spending at least 10% on the sector.
Jonathan further urged development partners, banks, and private companies to stop treating agricultural support as charity and instead see it as a wise investment.
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“Our youths and women are not just farmers—they are the backbone of our food systems,” he said.
Although the four-day ACAT conference, attended by over 900 delegates from around the world, focused on using technology to drive food production across the continent, Rwanda’s Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente, who opened the event, quickly echoed the peace ambassador’s views, calling for urgent action to support climate-smart farming.
GEJ conclusively hinted that, “Africa holds 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. We are standing at a crossroads—between a future of hunger and a future of abundance. The choice is ours to make.”
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