Africa’s food challenge is not simply a question of production. The continent has the land, farmers and resources to produce much of the food it consumes, yet it still spends more than US$100 billion each year importing food. The bigger problem lies further down the food chain, where weak processing, storage, transportation and access to affordable finance mean much of the value created on African farms is lost before it reaches consumers. The result is an agricultural economy that produces, but does not always capture the full business value of what it grows.

That gap was a major focus at the 2026 Agriculture Summit Africa (ASA), where industry leaders and policymakers argued that Africa needs to look beyond producing more crops and livestock. The bigger opportunity, they said, is to capture more value after production.

More value starts after the harvest 

A farmer selling cassava, maize, tomatoes or cattle is only at the beginning of a much longer business chain. There is money to be made from processing those products, storing them properly, transporting them efficiently, packaging them and connecting them to larger markets. When those links are missing, farmers can struggle to earn more while businesses and consumers remain dependent on imported processed products.

This is why the conversation around African agriculture is increasingly shifting from production to value addition. At ASA 2026, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Senator Abubakar Kyari highlighted Africa’s more than US$100 billion annual food import bill as evidence of the value the continent is failing to capture locally. The summit’s wider message was that increasing production alone will not solve the problem if farmers remain disconnected from processing facilities, markets and affordable finance.

The bigger opportunity in livestock 

The sector currently contributes about US$32 billion to the Nigerian economy, according to the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development. The government is targeting US$74 billion by 2035, but reaching that figure will require more than increasing the number of animals being raised.

Minister of Livestock Development Idi Mukhtar Maiha has argued that the sector needs investment in areas such as feedlots, modern abattoirs, cold-chain infrastructure and leather manufacturing. More value can be created when animals are processed into meat, leather and other products within Nigeria rather than being moved long distances and sold with limited processing.

The minister also raised a financing problem. Livestock assets take time to mature, making short-term conventional lending a poor fit for many farmers and businesses in the sector. For agriculture to become a bigger business, the financing model has to match the way agricultural businesses actually work.

The financing gap is hard to ignore 

Africa’s agricultural potential is not necessarily the problem. The harder question is how to connect that potential to the money, infrastructure and markets required to turn it into productive businesses.

At the summit, Sterling Bank’s Group Head of Agric Finance and Solid Minerals, Dr Olushola Obikanye, described the challenge as Africa’s difficulty in converting agricultural potential into productivity, value and economic power.

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In Nigeria, the financing gap is particularly striking. Agriculture contributes close to a quarter of economic output but receives less than 5 percent of banking industry lending, according to reporting from the summit. That disconnect matters because farmers cannot build processing facilities without capital, processors cannot operate efficiently without reliable supplies and infrastructure, and businesses cannot reach bigger markets without functioning logistics.

The business beyond the farm 

A crop can be sold as a raw commodity, or it can become flour, oil, starch, animal feed, packaged food or an industrial input. Each additional stage can create businesses, jobs and new markets. This is where processing becomes more than an agricultural issue.

The same applies to livestock. Meat processing, dairy, leather, animal feed, cold storage and transportation all represent businesses that can grow around the farmer.

For Africa, the opportunity is therefore not simply to grow more food, but to keep more of the money generated by that food within the continent.

Building businesses around the food chain 

ASA 2026 attracted more than 12,000 participants and set a US$300 million pipeline target for investable agricultural projects. The summit also launched AgricHub, a platform intended to connect farmers and agribusinesses with financiers, markets and agricultural technology providers.

The question is becoming less about whether Africa has the resources to feed itself and more about whether it can build the systems needed to turn those resources into competitive businesses.

The US$100 billion food import bill is therefore more than an import figure. It also represents a business opportunity: the value Africa could capture if more of what it grows is processed, financed, transported and sold within stronger local and regional value chains.

The next phase of African agriculture may not be about producing more at all costs. It may be about making sure that more of what Africa already produces becomes food, products, businesses and wealth on the continent.

Meiza Nigeria