By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

Perhaps it was the most crucial summit held on January 9th to 11th in 2025 with a focus to raise agricultural productivity, increase public investment in agriculture, and stimulate economic growth through agriculture-led development, and ultimately seeks pathways to support African countries eliminate continent-wide hunger and reduce growing poverty.

During these past several years, African governments have taken delight in increasing imports of basic agricultural produce which could be cultivated locally.

Import substitution policy is seemingly not part of any discussions during their ministerial meetings, instead devoted time on how to approve huge budgets for agricultural products from foreign sources.

It has also taken the African Union (AU) years to initiate an agricultural programme directed at ensuring food security and cutting poverty in the continent. This cutting-edge initiative forms an integral part of the broad AU Agenda 2063.

Considered as the most ambitious and comprehensive agricultural reform effort ever undertaken in Africa, it was first launched in 2003 following the Maputo Declaration and reaffirmed in 2014 in Equatorial Guinea with the Malabo Declaration.

It has emerged as the cornerstone framework for driving agricultural transformation across Africa and represents a fundamental shift toward development that is supposed to be fully owned and directed by various African governments.

That, however, the early January Kampala summit, attended by Ministers of Agriculture from the AU’s 55-member states, thoroughly deliberated on implementing aspects of the 10-year programme, primarily to be pursued, in different stages, by stimulating investment, fostering partnerships, and empowering vulnerable smallholder farmers. Notably, the programme is set to run from 2026- 2035.

Without a single doubt, the drafting the programme which underwent a rigorous review process, took a full decade to complete; from 2014, in Equatorial Guinea with the Malabo Declaration to Kampala, Uganda, in 2025. And that what is appropriately referred to as an effective continental organization – the African Union.

The drafting of the strategy was undertaken by a broad spectrum of stakeholders including the Regional Economic Communities, African experts and researchers, farmers’ cooperatives and organizations, development partners, parliamentarians, private sector groups, women in agriculture and youth groups.

According to the official release indicated that Africa’s food security remains a pressing challenge, exacerbated by climate change, conflicts, rapid population growth, and economic disruptions.

Currently, over 280 million Africans suffer from chronic hunger while food systems struggle to meet rising demands.

Therefore, the 10-year programme is planned to address these issues by promoting climate-resilient agriculture, improving infrastructure, reducing food waste, and enhancing regional trade in agricultural goods. This is in a bid to equip Africa to feed itself sustainably.

At the Kampala ministerial meeting, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, Robinah Nabbanja, while recalling important statistics that point to the richness of African soils, abundance of arable land and fresh water, and a 60% population engaged in agriculture, expressed the highest shame that the continent’s food imports cost up to $100 billion.

“This summit should come up with concrete proposals on how Africa can come out of such an undesirable situation. For us to guarantee our future as Africans, we must feed ourselves,” she told the gathering in a tectonic language.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission, Ambassador Josefa Sacko, commented on the importance of the strategy, saying it “aims to boost food production, expand value addition, boost intra-Africa trade, create millions of jobs for the youth and women, build inclusive agrifood value chains, and build resilient and sustainable agrifood systems that will withstand shocks and stressors now and in the future.

Furthermore, we are dedicated to strengthening governance through evidence-based decision-making and enhancing accountability among all stakeholders. Inclusivity is a fundamental aspect of our approach; we will ensure that women, youth, and marginalized groups have access to resources, thereby facilitating their equitable participation in the agrifood sector.”

Dr Girma Amente, Minister of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, whose Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed, is the Champion of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Action Plan 2026- 2035, highlighted how Ethiopia has cascaded CAADP into the national agricultural investment plan (NAIP).

“The plan emphasizes the importance of increasing public investment in agriculture, which is crucial for achieving the CAADP target. Ethiopia has significantly increased its agricultural budget allocation and has demonstrated its commitment by meeting the 6 per cent annual growth target of CAADP.

The implementation of the National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP) has contributed to consistent improvements in annual agricultural production, elevating both crop yields and overall food and livestock production, and also performed better in addressing the resilience targets of the CAADP,” explained Girma Amente.

In his turn, Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze, who led the drafting of the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan in his capacity as the Chair of the Specialised Technical Committee of the AU on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment, stressed the need to move into implementation of the strategy, as soon as the summit ends.

“The planning phase of the Kampala CAADP Agenda ends during this Summit. We must, therefore, move into implementation and execution mode. It is by focusing on execution that we can make a meaningful impact to the continent and its people. We must move, not with the times, but ahead of times.

“This calls for advances in technological research and practices, building agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change and other shocks, agro-industrialization, and the like,” according to Frank Tumwebaze.

The three-day Extraordinary Summit in Kampala was organized to adopt the 10-Year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan to advance agricultural transformation and food systems in Africa. But that was dominated by high-level speeches, with little hope of concretely addressing key questions relating to ensuring food security in the continent.

The majority of African countries hold steadfastly to maintain the status quo, ready to allocate large part of their annual budgets to increase imports. There was little hope for any significant results and remarkable change in driving agricultural transformation across Africa after second day of the summit, dedicated to deliberations by Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and the 11th January meeting by Heads of State and Government.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Justin Trudeau, has resigned as the country’s ruling Liberal Party leader amid growing discontent in the North American country.

Mr Trudeau’s exit comes amid intensified political headwinds after his finance minister and closest political ally abruptly quit last month.

Mr Trudeau, who said he would remain in office until a new party leader is chosen, has faced growing calls from within his party to step down.

Polls show the Liberals are set to lose this year’s election to the Conservative opposition.

“As you all know, I’m a fighter,” Mr Trudeau said on Monday, but “it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election,” he stated.

His exit comes as Canada faces tariff threats from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump.

The Republican and his allies have repeatedly taunted Mr Trudeau in recent weeks, with Mr Trump mocking Canada as the “51st state” of the US.

Mr Trudeau also lamented that the Conservative leader, Mr Pierre Poilievre, is not the right vision for Canadians.

“Stopping the fight against climate change doesn’t make sense,” he tells reporters, adding that “attacking journalists” is “not what Canadians need in this moment”.

“We need an ambitious, optimistic view of the future, and Pierre Poilievre is not offering that.”

Mr Trudeau also said he was looking forward to the fight as progressives “stand up” for a vision for a better country “despite the tremendous pressures around the world to think smaller”.

He also clarified that he won’t be calling an election, saying the Canadian parliament has been “seized by obstruction, filibustering and a total lack of productivity” for the past several months.

“It’s time for a reset,” he said, adding that, “It’s time for the temperature to come down, for the people to have a fresh start in parliament, to be able to navigate through these complex times.”

By Adedapo Adesanya

Start-ups in Africa raised $2.2 billion in 2024 in funding across equity, debt and grants, lower than the $2.9 billion raised in 2023 by 25 per cent amid a continued slowdown after a peak of $4.6 billion recorded in 2022.

The Big Deal noted that this excludes exits – which is when investors realise a return on their investments, most likely when the startup has become profitable or when there is a change of ownership.

The funding slowdown has occurred for consecutive years due to a wider global funding freeze impacted by macroeconomic developments and geopolitical events as well as a change in market offering trend leading to funding going elsewhere.

There have also been concerns about inflated valuations, business sustainability, and increased due diligence and scrutiny from investors.

For the review year, there wasn’t much funding activity as $800 million (36 per cent) of the total funding was computed in the first six months, while the remaining $1.4 billion came in the second half of 2024.

The $1.4 billion raised in H2 alone (+25 per cent YoY and +80 per cent compared to H1),  made it the second-best semester since the beginning of the ‘funding winter’ in mid-2022.

This development was considerably driven by two deals in the fourth quarter of last year, which minted two fresh unicorns in the African startup space, in the form of Nigeria’s Moniepoint and South Africa’s Tyme Group.

This was the first such event since early 2023, as the companies joined the exclusive club that has MNT-Halan, Interswitch, Flutterwave, Chipper, OPay, Andela, and Wave as members.

Some of the raises reported include Yellow Card raising $33 million in October to fund its growth and expansion, JuicyWay raising $3 million pre-seed to facilitate affordable cross-border payments, as well as Seedstars Africa Ventures raising $42 million in its first-ever round to help pioneering African startups in climate, food systems, energy, and payments infrastructure sectors.

The data showed that a total of 188 ventures raised $1 million or more in 2024 (excluding exits), which is just 10 per cent less than in 2023  (169 ventures).

On the exit front, there were 22 exits made public last year (up 10 per cent) versus 20 in 2023.