Akinwumi Adesina (photo), the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has been honored for his efforts to make food available to Africans. The 57-year old who was Nigeria’s immediate past Minister of Agriculture was on Monday, awarded the 2017 World Food Prize laureate for driving change in African agriculture and improving food security for millions across the continent.

The World Food Prize in a statement issued in Washington said: “Awarded by the World Food Prize Foundation, the $250,000 prize honors Nigerian Adesina for his leading role over the past two decades in: significantly expanding food production in Nigeria; introducing initiatives to exponentially increase the availability of credit for smallholder farmers across the African continent; and galvanizing the political will to transform African agriculture.”

Commenting the achievement, Adesina explained that the future of global food security depends on making farming a profitable business and developing local food processing that will add value to agricultural products to help farmers get out of poverty.

“I believe that what Africa does with agriculture and how it does is not only important for Africa but it's important for how we're going to feed the world by 2050 because 65 percent of all the uncultivated arable land left in the world is in Africa. To help Africa get it right in agriculture is also going to be a key part of securing food for the world,” he said.

Adesina has been the president of AfDB since 2015. He is the first Nigerian to hold the position.

Anita Fatunji