Africa's Food Security Strategy Takes Shape at Major Policy Summit in Abuja

Sterling Bank’s ninth Agriculture Summit Africa will convene in Abuja on 15 and 16 September 2026, placing questions of investment, policy coordination and institutional accountability at the centre of a continent-wide food security debate. The summit, operating under the theme “Building the Next Superpower: Africa’s Food Power Play,” will assemble policymakers, regulators, development finance institutions, agribusinesses and technology providers around a single structural question: how to transform Africa from a net food importer into a globally competitive agricultural economy.

The paradox framing that question is stark. Africa commands roughly 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land yet produces insufficient food to feed its own population. That gap has widened as rapid population growth and climate pressures intensify, making the policy failures underpinning it harder to ignore.

Sterling Bank, the convening institution, unveiled the event at a press conference in Lagos. The bank’s leadership positioned the gathering as a direct response to persistent structural deficiencies in African agriculture, framing it within the institution’s broader HEART strategy, which covers Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation. Dele Faseemo, Group Executive for Corporate and Investment Banking at Sterling Bank, reported that the bank’s financing across those sectors expanded by 39 percent in 2025, reaching N331.7 billion, with agriculture recording one of the sharpest increases. “When Sterling talks about agriculture, we are speaking as a bank that puts its balance sheet where its convictions are; behind the farmers, processors, off-takers and agribusinesses doing the hard, unglamorous work of turning Nigeria’s land into livelihoods,” Faseemo said.

The stakes, as articulated by Dr Olushola Obikanye, Group Head for Agric Finance and Solid Minerals at Sterling Bank, extend well beyond production volumes into the domain of trade policy, foreign exchange management and geopolitical positioning. “Food is jobs. Food is trade. Food is foreign exchange, industrial policy, climate resilience, and increasingly, geopolitical power. Hence, the continent that feeds itself and competes globally will hold real strategic weight. That is Africa’s food power play,” he said.

Nigeria’s agricultural sector faces well-documented governance and infrastructure constraints: limited access to finance, inadequate quality inputs, insufficient mechanisation, weak storage and logistics networks, and persistent post-harvest losses. Government representatives at the Lagos press conference acknowledged these barriers while welcoming the Federal Government’s designation of food security as a central policy priority. The administration has advanced a National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and a 10-year agrifood system strategy aligned with the African Union’s Kampala Declaration. Speakers stressed, however, that meaningful transformation requires coordinated action across government agencies, the private sector, development finance institutions and technology providers, not any single actor working in isolation.

That coordination imperative drew the clearest institutional statement from Christian Mulamula, Principal Country Officer for Nigeria at the International Finance Corporation. He argued that agricultural transformation must extend beyond production gains to constructing an enabling regulatory and investment ecosystem. “ASA is a platform for bringing together policymakers, investors, financial institutions, agribusinesses, technology providers, and development partners to accelerate investment and strengthen Africa’s food systems. At the World Bank Group, we believe that accelerating sustainable development requires public and private sector solutions working together to translate development priorities into investable opportunities, mobilising capital to build stronger and more competitive businesses, and turn business growth into jobs, improved livelihoods, and greater economic opportunities for people,” Mulamula said.

The summit’s coalition reflects that multi-sector mandate. Partners include the IFC, IDH, Arila Group, Noor Takaful, Saroafrica International Limited, Propcom+, YAPU Solutions, GIZ, Sterling One Foundation, XtraLarge Farms, Maang Agric, Arzikinoma, Leadway Assurance, British American Tobacco Nigeria, Mastercard, FarmKart, EcoTutu, JR Farms, the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, Cavola, Agrify, EU-Nigeria Gateway and Whole Eats.

The two-day event will feature high-level plenary sessions, strategic deal-making rooms, innovation showcases and cross-border trade roundtables. Whether the institutional commitments made in Abuja in September translate into measurable policy change and deployed capital will be the test that follows. Registration is open at www.agricsummit.org.