Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd., in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, Heifer International, and GIZ, has convened key public and private sector leaders to champion a shift toward homegrown food system reforms that will strengthen African MSMEs and drive long-term sustainable agricultural growth across the continent.
The 2025 Changemakers Conference, held in Nigeria, brought together policymakers, business leaders, farmers, and development actors to rethink how Africa designs, supports, and sustains food systems, moving away from short-term interventions to more people-centered, legacy-driven transformation.
With the theme “Designing for Legacy: Building Resilient and Impact-Driven Food Systems,” speakers underscored the need to embed agriculture at the core of national economic planning.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, said food system transformation must be considered a major component of national growth and industrialisation.
“Building resilient and impact-driven food systems should be hardwired into any economic plan,” he said. “It is a demonstration that the food system has moved from primitive practices to modern, innovative, and creative systems.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari represented by Nuhu Kilishi, Director and Head of the Ministry’s Nutrition and Food Safety Department stressed the urgency of strengthening value chains, cutting post-harvest losses, and prioritising women, youth, and marginalised farmers within the transformation process.
Industry stakeholders believe that strengthening food production systems through homegrown reforms can help drive affordability, boost market access, improve rural livelihoods, and enable agro-linked MSMEs to scale, innovate, and compete more effectively across the continent.
