Nigerian billionaire businessman and philanthropist Tony Elumelu on Friday pledged his support to transforming the agricultural sector in Africa, saying entrepreneurs in agriculture should be up-skilled with more focus given to vocational and technical education.

Elumelu, chairperson of Heirs Holdings and the United Bank for Africa, was speaking during the closing day of the 51st African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meetings in Lusaka, Zambia.

The AfDB prioritises agriculture in its ten-year Africa transformation policy.

Elumelu said while there was a prevalence of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) activities in artisan-related industries such as construction and bricklaying, similar initiatives were missing in agriculture.

“To solve under-productivity in agriculture, we must scale TVET opportunities both in depth and breadth. A majority of farmers still employ harmful traditional farming and harvesting practices that can be corrected with training for extension service officers,” Elumelu said.

“In Ghana, for example, local political leadership now invite private universities to lead these extension service programmes. This presents opportunities for academia to test theoretical frameworks in practical settings, hopefully translating research to visible impact.”

According to research, agriculture employs over 65% of Africa’s labour force and contributes 32% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP), positioning agriculture as the sector offering the highest potential for sustainable and inclusive growth.

Through his foundation in 2014, Elemule launched a $100-million entrepreneurship programme with a takeover of 1 000 startup entrepreneurs per year.

Elumelu said 304 entrepreneurs in agriculture in the class of 2015 had created over 5 000 casual and full-time employment in the past year of operation after receiving direct support from the Foundation.

“Imagine the hundreds of thousands of jobs that we can unleash on the continent with more targeted interventions carried out on a large scale to expand opportunity, increase productivity and build resilience in the agriculture sector,” he said.

Elumelu also decried the gender imbalance in the representation of agribusinesses in Africa.

“While 80% of rural farmers are women, very few women are involved in accessing loans and finance for building agribusinesses. This phenomenon can partly be explained by the implementation of land and inheritance customs that disproportionately exclude women,” Elumelu said.

He said that the traditional definition of collateral needed to be redefined to become more SME-friendly in order to improve access to finance.

“General understanding of the proper methods of financing the agriculture sector is limited, and not well understood. Very few financial institutions understand the importance of deploying long-term patient capital to agriculture businesses,” he said.

On Wednesday during the AfDB’s meetings, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the Special Envoy on Gender of the African Development Bank, launched a $300-million empowerment fund, the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), specifically designed to help female-owned businesses on the continent with finance in order to thrive.