Last Saturday saw the launch by African Development Bank head Akinwumi Adesina and President of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, of the “milestone” Pemba-Lichinga Integrated Development Corridor in Mozambique’s northern Niassa province.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund approved a $47.09-million grant for the first phase of the Development Corridor Group in December 2021.
This forms part of the AfDB’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones initiative. These zones are designed to create cost-efficient agro-processing hubs in areas of high agricultural potential. The initiative is in line with Mozambique’s National Development Strategy, which seeks to improve living conditions through structural reforms and economic diversification.
Nyusi said the project was part of a commitment outlined in the country’s five-year programme to boost economic growth, productivity and job creation. Agriculture and industry were the “catalysing base” that would transform the economy and elevate it to middle-income status, Nyusi added. “These sectors have reaffirmed their primacy in the mosaic of the country’s economic priorities despite security challenges, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the global economic recession.”
The project will directly contribute to the implementation of the National Program to Industrialize Mozambique (PRONAI). It will build on a long list of AfDB interventions in northern Mozambique for the provision of infrastructure and will unlock, beginning with Niassa province, the agricultural potential of the Nacala corridor.
“It is the first of many Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones to be set up across our continent to transform what we have in abundance into massive wealth-generating opportunities. Here in Mozambique and in other parts of Africa, Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones lie at the core of our ambition and strategy to turn Africa from a net importer into a net exporter of food. If there was ever a time that we needed to raise food production drastically, that time is now,” Adesina said.
