Agriculture is quintessential for Africa and must be leveraged for transformation, says ECA’s Songwe

“Agriculture is the quintessential sector for the transformation of the African continent and we must treat it as such,” the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) – Ms. Vera Songwe has told a wide-range of African leaders and delegates attending the 51st Session of ECA (and Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development). Ms. Songwe was speaking at the launch of a new report titledAgriculture, Powering Africa’s Economic Transformation, by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) – founded by former ECA Executive Secretary – Dr. K.Y. Amoako. The Report is a comprehensive assessment of the state of Africa’s agriculture and gives clear pointers as to how to rapidly transform the sector to leverage the continent’s overall economic transformation and development. The study points out that Africa’s agriculture must be modernized to the extent that it creates massive jobs across value chains, thereby raising levels of income, reducing poverty and improving countries’ trade balances. Ghana’s Minister of Finance – Dr. Ken Ofori-Atta also attended the book launch and underscored the importance of the report’s underlying theme in terms of its implications for agricultural transformation and diversification in his country and across Africa.