How Africa's Agricultural Leaders Plan to Reshape Global Food Power in 2026

Sterling Bank's ninth Agriculture Summit Africa arrives in Abuja on 15 and 16 September 2026, carrying a theme that frames the continent's food challenge as a geopolitical contest: "Building the Next Superpower: Africa's Food Power Play." The gathering will bring together policymakers, regulators, development finance institutions, agribusinesses and technology providers to address a structural question that has grown more pressing as population growth accelerates and climate pressures mount: how to reposition Africa from net food importer to globally competitive agricultural exporter. The operational contradiction at the centre of that agenda is hard to ignore. Africa holds approximately 60 percent of the world's uncultivated arable land yet remains unable to feed its own population. That gap has widened steadily, rendering the policy failures underpinning it increasingly untenable. Sterling Bank unveiled the summit at a Lagos press conference, positioning it as a direct institutional response to persistent structural deficiencies in African agriculture. The bank's leadership embedded the event within its broader HEART strategy, which encompasses Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation. Dele Faseemo, Group Executive for Corporate and Investment Banking at Sterling Bank, reported that the bank's financing across those sectors expanded by 39 percent in 2025, reaching N331.7 billion, with agriculture recording one of the sharpest increases. His framing was unambiguous: "When Sterling talks about agriculture, we are speaking as a bank that puts its balance sheet where its convictions are; behind the farmers, processors, off-takers and agribusinesses doing the hard, unglamorous work of turning Nigeria's land into livelihoods." By contrast, the institutional stakes as articulated by Dr Olushola Obikanye, Group Head for Agric Finance and Solid Minerals at Sterling Bank, extend well beyond production volumes. Food security, in his framing, is inseparable from employment generation, trade competitiveness, foreign exchange earnings, industrial policy, climate resilience and strategic weight. "Food is jobs. Food is trade. Food is foreign exchange, industrial policy, climate resilience, and increasingly, geopolitical power. Hence, the continent that feeds itself and competes globally will hold real strategic weight. That is Africa's food power play," Obikanye stated. Nigeria's agricultural sector operates under well-documented constraints: limited access to finance, inadequate quality inputs, insufficient mechanisation, weak storage and logistics networks, and persistent post-harvest losses. Government representatives at the Lagos press conference acknowledged these barriers while welcoming the Federal Government's designation of food security as a central policy priority. The administration has advanced a National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and a 10-year agrifood system strategy aligned with the African Union's Kampala Declaration. Speakers stressed, though, that meaningful transformation requires coordinated action across government agencies, the private sector, development finance institutions and technology providers. No single actor working unilaterally will close the gap. Christian Mulamula, Principal Country Officer for Nigeria at the International Finance Corporation, offered the clearest institutional statement on that coordination imperative. Agricultural transformation must extend beyond production gains to constructing an enabling regulatory and investment ecosystem. "ASA is a platform for bringing together policymakers, investors, financial institutions, agribusinesses, technology providers, and development partners to accelerate investment and strengthen Africa's food systems," Mulamula said. "At the World Bank Group, we believe that accelerating sustainable development requires public and private sector solutions working together to translate development priorities into investable opportunities, mobilising capital to build stronger and more competitive businesses, and turn business growth into jobs, improved livelihoods, and greater economic opportunities for people." The summit's coalition reflects that multi-sector mandate. Partners include the IFC, IDH, Arila Group, Noor Takaful, Saroafrica International Limited, Propcom+, YAPU Solutions, GIZ, Sterling One Foundation, XtraLarge Farms, Maang Agric, Arzikinoma, Leadway Assurance, British American Tobacco Nigeria, Mastercard, FarmKart, EcoTutu, JR Farms, the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, Cavola, Agrify, EU-Nigeria Gateway and Whole Eats. The two-day programme will feature high-level plenary sessions, strategic deal-making rooms, innovation showcases and cross-border trade roundtables (a format that signals the summit's ambition to move beyond declarations toward binding commercial commitments). Registration is open at www.agricsummit.org. Whether the deals struck in those rooms in September 2026 will translate into measurable shifts in Africa's trade balance, or remain another round of well-intentioned pledges, is the question the continent's farmers are still waiting to see answered.