Keynote Speech Delivered by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank, at the Inauguration of Canada’s Financial Development Institution (FINDEV Canada), Montreal, Canada, September 17, 2018 18/09/2018 Share| Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon!

It is such a great pleasure to be here for this landmark occasion. Let me first congratulate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Minister of International Development, Marie Claude Bibeau; and Mr. Paul Lamontagne, on the inauguration of FinDev Canada today.

The African Development Bank Group has extended a loan of €84 million to Cameroon to support livestock and fish production in the central African country in line with the Bank’s strategies to create jobs and raise household incomes.

The loan, approved by the Bank’s Board on Wednesday, will support the modernization of beef, pork and fish production, with significant improvements to food and nutrition in the country.

Kenya has one of the most dynamic and innovative economies in sub-Saharan Africa. A decade after going through a food crisis and in the aftermath of the drought in 2016-2017, the country aims to achieve self-sufficiency in food products such as maize, tomato, cabbage, rice, beans, milk and meat. This clearly stated ambition of the Kenyan government has received support from the African Development Bank, which sees food security as a catalyst for the growth and development of the country’s productive sectors.

Africa should be the breadbasket of the world, has no reason spending US$ 35 billion a year importing food, Adesina tells Agriculture conference in U.S.

The President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, has made an urgent call to give farmers across the continent new technologies with the potential to transform agricultural production. Adesina said the technology transfer was needed immediately and that evidence from countries like Nigeria demonstrated that technology plus strong government backing was already yielding positive results.

Mozambique remains one of the countries most impacted by climate change in Africa, having faced a number of climate shocks and disasters over the past years that have hampered economic development. Temperature rises, scarce rainfall and droughts, floods and cyclones, have had significant impacts on key sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and tourism, among others.