The former Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Nigeria, Adesina Akinwumi explained methods he used to cut corruption in the farming sector as minister.
Currently serving as President of the African Development Bank Group, former President Jonathan had appointed Adesina with the recommendation of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
“The whole system I met on the ground was highly inefficient,” Adesina said in an interview.
Adesina had used his position to decline all fertilizer contracts. His methods were to ensure that companies got their products directly to the end users and that farmers would have access to imports, and good-quality seeds.
Adesina revolutionised farming by introducing the electronic wallet system. The system was then used to deliver digitized payments to farmers by phone with vouchers for buying seeds and fertilisers. Farmers suddenly had easy access from anywhere in the country.
This solved the problem of inaccessibility as fertilisers and seeds were not getting to the right users. The percentage of farmers that received government-subsidized fertilizer increased to 94% from 11% within 4 years.
Adesina said that this ended corruption in the sector.
The move discussed by Adesina raised a lot of backlash. The AFDB president said that at the time, regardless of the backlash, he wasn’t deterred. He said, “there was a lot of resistance from fertilizer importers.” With government support, Adesina brought transparency into the sector.
Adesina did not declare an intention to run for Presidency but says that he is open to all public service in response to a question about him running for a federal position.
