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New York, Sept. 21, GNA \u2013 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the investor community to support the roll-out of Africa\u2019s lucrative agro-industry to guarantee global food security.<\/p>\n
He noted that with over 60 percent of the world\u2019s uncultivated arable land in Africa, the continent, with its untapped potential, was the new frontier for manufacturing, technology, and food production.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica is ready for business. Africa needs you and you need Africa,\u201d the President told world leaders when he took his turn at the general debates of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The high-level General Debates of the UNGA77 opened Tuesday, September 20, 2022 with the theme of \u201cA watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges.\u201d It would end on Monday, September 26.<\/p>\n
Drawing on the effect of the Russian-Ukraine war that has triggered global food crises, President Akufo-Addo rapped the investor community to see agro-business in Africa more of an opportunity, rather than the perceived, exaggerated risk, which according to him has been false but the dominant narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a renewed commitment towards an inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and economic integration and the intensity of the challenges we face today is only matched, like never before, by the immensity of the opportunity before us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncidentally, 2022 is billed as Africa\u2019s Year to take action on food and nutrition development goals. We see the current geopolitical crisis as an opportunity to rely less on food imports from outside the continent and use better our sixty per cent global share of arable lands to increase food production.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have enough land, enough water, enough gas and enough manpower to produce enough fertilizer, food and energy for ourselves and for others. You need Africa because Africa is busily building the world\u2019s largest single market of 1.3 billion people,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
With Africa\u2019s agribusiness sector expected to reach some $1 trillion by 2030, the President was optimistic that the potential and opportunities of the continent\u2019s agro-industry was a strong point for the investor community to increase investment to boost Africa\u2019s food production.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cSee Africa for what it is: the new frontier for manufacturing, for technology, for food production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
GNA<\/p>\n