Africa is emerging beyond the shadows of aid-dependent narratives. Across the continent, bold financial innovations, accelerated public investments, and regional synergy are forging a new path, one where food security is rooted in African capitals, African institutions, and African ambition. This journey from dependency to ownership promises to recalibrate the dynamics of development for generations.
There were approximately 307 million undernourished people in Africa, representing 20.2% of the continent’s population. While global hunger decreased slightly, the number of undernourished people in Africa rose, making it the region most affected by increasing hunger and food insecurity. The situation remains critical, with projections suggesting the number of chronically undernourished people could reach around 512 million by 2030 if current trends persist. The urgency of financing Africa’s food agenda lies not in abstraction, but in the lived experiences of families struggling daily without adequate access to food.
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Traditionally, agriculture has remained underfunded across African nations, with average budget allocations hovering well below the 10 per cent target set by the Maputo Declaration. As of 2023, the share of total government expenditure dedicated to agriculture stood at just 2.7 per cent, down from 2.9 per cent in 2022. Oxfam further highlights that two-thirds of African countries allocate less than 5 per cent of their budgets to agriculture.
Despite these sobering averages, some national governments are charting encouraging course corrections. In 2025, Nigeria more than doubled its agricultural appropriation, from ₦362.9 billion in 2024 to ₦826.5 billion amounting to 1.7 per cent of its national budget. Similarly, Kenya allocated only 3 per cent of its national funding to agriculture in 2025, a figure still falling short of regional commitments. Tanzania, however, has been investing with greater intensity: in the 2024/25 fiscal year, the agricultural budget soared by over 300 per cent from three years earlier, underpinning significant growth in irrigation, mechanisation, and infrastructure and contributing to 11.2 per cent agricultural GDP growth.
Financing Through African Institutions
While national budgets tighten, African multilateral institutions have become beacons of transformative financing. The African Development Bank (AfDB) spearheads a framework of solutions tailored for African realities. Its “Feed Africa” strategy aims to make the continent a net food exporter by 2025, projecting that investments between US$280 billion and US$340 billion over the decade could yield new markets worth US$55–65 billion per year.
Under this banner, the AfDB has already mobilised significant results. Its US$1.5 billion Emergency Food Production Facility, activated in response to global supply shocks, has delivered nearly 460,000 tons of seed and 2.8 million tons of fertiliser to over 12.3 million farmers, yielding 37.6 million metric tons of food. In just two years, the bank’s agricultural outreach enabled 14 million farmers across 30 countries to access improved inputs, spurring an output increase of 44 million tonnes, 116 per cent above expectations valued at US$17.3 billion.
Moreover, the AfDB’s broader infrastructure and agricultural investments have empowered 104 million Africans to achieve food security and supported 13 million farmers with enhanced technologies over the past decade. Complementing these efforts are targeted regional programmes, for example, a US$12 million grant for the ECOWAS-wide REWARD initiative seeks to ignite private-public investment in rice value chains across West Africa, within a broader US$650 million strategy.
Looking ahead, the AfDB is preparing a ground breaking US$500 million facility to unlock US$10 billion for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses, via blended finance tools and technical assistance, signalling a shift toward sustainable self-reliance.
National Innovation
Beyond grants and loans, African countries are experimenting with novel instruments. Kenya, for example, is designing a debt-for-food-security swap worth US$1 billion by March 2026. Through this mechanism, existing debt is reframed into lower-cost obligations, with savings ring-fenced for food-related investments. In tandem, Kenya targets US$500 million in sustainability-linked bonds and expects inflows of US$757 million by March and another US$457 million by June from the World Bank.
Aid Is Not the Abode
Despite these strides, aid remains critical to avert catastrophe. Nigeria confronts a hunger emergency of staggering proportions, with nearly 31 million people struggling with acute food insecurity, an escalation compounded by donor fatigue. Less than a quarter of its US$130 million appeal has been met, threatening the lives of 300,000 malnourished children and endangering the support for 700,000 displaced persons.
Meanwhile, in West and Central Africa, over 40 million people find themselves unable to secure sufficient food, with projections of nearly 52 million by mid-2026. The share enduring “emergency levels of hunger” has surged nearly 70 per cent, among drivers of conflict, climate shocks, and systemic instability. These crises underline that while domestic financing must expand, humanitarian support remains a vital bridge during transitional phases.
Africa’s journey to food security is shifting from discrete national programmes to a synchronized continental architecture. This global framework, composed of national budget increments, institution-led financing, innovative instruments, and humanitarian safety nets is coalescing into durability. Former President Akinwumi Adesina, reflecting on a decade at the AfDB’s helm, underscored this paradigm shift. He traced how the bank’s capital grew from US$93 billion in 2015 to US$318 billion by 2025, channelled into infrastructure and agriculture, and embedded in the “High-Fives” strategy (Powering, Feeding, Industrialising, Integrating Africa, Improving Quality of Life) aligned with 90 per cent of the UN’s SDGs.
Africa stands at a crossroads. The future of its food security will be carved not by pipelines of aid but by pipelines of investment, innovation, and home-grown responsibility. Through the interplay of government reallocation, institutional leverage, creative financing, and strategic global partnerships, a richly financed agenda is emerging one that is as African at heart as it is globally consequential.
