African Development Bank launches the “milestone” Pemba-Lichinga Integrated Development Corridor in Mozambique. It is the country’s first Special Agro-Industrial Zone initiative to create cost-efficient agro-processing hubs in high potential areas. The Development Corridor is part of Mozambique’s National Development Strategy to boost economic growth, productivity, and job creation.
Mozambique’s National Development Strategy’s five-year program aims to improve living conditions through structural reforms and economic diversification. It is the first of many Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones built all over Africa to convert the continent’s abundant resources into enormous wealth-generating opportunities.
The Pemba-Lichinga Integrated Development Corridor is anticipated to boost production and productivity in the southern African nation. It will raise agricultural commodities’ quality and strengthen soybean, sesame, macadamia, potatoes, wheat, beans, maize, cotton, and poultry value chains. In addition, the Development Corridor helps promote new technologies and storage facilities. The first phase is estimated to hire almost 30,000 people at the farm level, with women occupying at least 50%.
African Development Bank Chief Akinwumi A. Adesina said the war in Ukraine, a significant food basket, threatened global food and energy supplies. The price of wheat has risen by 62%, maize up by 36%, and soya beans up by 29 %. Fertilizer, critical to food production, has gone up by 300%. Therefore, Africans need to raise their food production capacity to survive and thrive.
