Agriculture Summit Africa 2026 brought farmers, investors, financiers, agribusinesses and policymakers together in Abuja to examine what it will take to turn Africa’s agricultural potential into food security, trade and economic power

Africa has the land, the farmers and the markets. What remains unresolved is how to connect them at the scale required to feed a growing population and build an agricultural economy that can compete beyond its borders.

That question took centre stage in Abuja this week as Agriculture Summit Africa (ASA) 2026, convened by Sterling Bank, brought together stakeholders from across the agricultural ecosystem under the theme, “Building the Next Superpower: Africa’s Food Power Play.”

The ninth edition of the summit was held on 15 and 16 September 2026 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, bringing together policymakers, financial institutions, investors, agribusinesses, farmers, technology companies and development partners.

But the summit was structured around a question bigger than agricultural production.

It asked what Africa needs to do to move from being a continent with enormous agricultural potential to one that can produce more of what it consumes, process more of what it produces and capture more value from its food systems.

From food security to food power

Africa’s agricultural paradox remains striking.

The continent possesses roughly 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, yet continues to spend tens of billions of dollars importing food. Sterling Bank and other stakeholders used the summit to argue that this gap represents both a food-system challenge and an economic opportunity.

For farmers, the problem is rarely simply the ability to produce.

Access to finance, quality inputs, mechanisation, storage, transportation, reliable markets and processing capacity can determine whether production translates into income.

This means that increasing agricultural output without fixing the systems around production can leave significant value unrealised.

That was the premise behind ASA 2026.

Rather than treating agriculture as a collection of individual commodities, the summit brought attention to the connections between production, finance, processing, technology, logistics, markets and trade.

Sterling Bank’s Group Head, Agric Finance and Solid Minerals, Dr Olushola Obikanye, described food as a driver of jobs, trade, foreign exchange, industrial development, climate resilience and strategic influence.

The implication is straightforward: the economic value of agriculture does not end when a crop or animal leaves the farm.

It grows when that production is connected to functioning markets and industries.

The conversation started with farmers

Before stakeholders gathered in Abuja, ASA 2026 took its conversation to Iseyin, Oyo State, where more than 300 smallholder farmers participated in a town hall focused on climate-smart agriculture, market readiness and digital tools.

The decision to begin at the grassroots was deliberate.

Dr Olushola Obikanye said farmers should not remain at the margins of conversations about Africa’s food future, while Whole Eats Africa founder Kemi Jeje emphasised the importance of connecting farmers’ existing knowledge with better access to information, technology, markets and partnerships.

The Iseyin engagement provided an important foundation for the Abuja discussions.

It placed the realities of primary producers alongside conversations that would later involve banks, investors, development finance institutions and large businesses.

That connection matters because investment decisions made at the top of the value chain ultimately have to work at the farm level.

Finance moved to the centre of the discussion

For Sterling Bank, the summit also provided an opportunity to highlight its growing financing commitment to its priority sectors.

The bank disclosed that financing across its HEART sectors, covering Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation, increased by 39 percent to ₦331.7 billion in 2025. Agriculture was among the sectors recording a significant increase.

The bank’s position was that agricultural transformation requires capital to reach more than primary production.

Farmers need financing.

Processors need financing.

Off-takers need financing.

Storage and logistics businesses need financing.

Technology companies developing solutions for agriculture need financing.

The challenge is therefore partly about making agricultural opportunities visible and investable to different categories of capital.

That was where one of the summit’s most practical features came in.

The Deal Room: moving from conversations to transactions

ASA 2026 included an Investment Deal Room designed to connect agribusinesses with investors, development finance institutions, commercial buyers and technical assistance providers.

On the first day, women-led and youth-owned agribusinesses presented opportunities requiring growth capital, technical assistance and market access.

The second day focused on established businesses across several agricultural value chains, including cocoa, soy, rice, maize, livestock and fisheries. These businesses held structured one-on-one meetings with investors and development finance institutions.

The organisers also created separate engagements for early-stage agricultural technology companies and businesses seeking technical assistance.

The significance of the Deal Room was its attempt to answer a familiar problem in agricultural development: how to move from discussions about investment to actual investment opportunities.

The closing sessions focused on commercial arrangements, expressions of interest and potential capital and off-take opportunities.

More importantly, the organisers announced a 180-day post-summit tracking process to monitor investment, commercial and partnership opportunities emerging from the Deal Room.

That creates a longer timeline for judging the outcome of the summit.

The conference itself lasted two days.

The investment conversations are expected to continue for months.

Where does livestock fit into Africa’s food power?

For the livestock sector, this is where the summit becomes particularly relevant.

Livestock was one of the value chains represented in the second day’s Deal Room discussions alongside crop and fisheries businesses.

But livestock’s place in Africa’s food system goes beyond being another agricultural subsector.

Animal-source foods contribute protein and micronutrients to diets, while livestock also provide income, employment, manure, traction and productive assets for millions of households.

Yet livestock businesses face many of the same structural constraints discussed at ASA.

Access to capital can determine whether a farmer can expand a herd, improve housing, invest in feed or adopt better genetics.

Animal health affects productivity and mortality.

Weak cold chains constrain dairy and meat value chains.

Poor market infrastructure can reduce the value captured by producers.

Disease outbreaks can disrupt production and trade.

And limited processing capacity can mean that even when animals are produced successfully, much of the potential value remains unrealised.

This is why the food-power conversation cannot stop at how much food Africa produces.

It also has to ask how much value the continent captures from that production.

Animal health is part of the investment equation

The livestock discussion also reinforces a point that is often missing from broader agricultural investment conversations: animal health is an economic issue.

A disease outbreak can reduce productivity, increase mortality, raise treatment costs, disrupt trade and affect household income.

Vaccination, disease surveillance, biosecurity, diagnostics and veterinary services therefore influence the economic performance of livestock enterprises.

The recent ARUVIN maiden national conference in Abuja made a similar argument from the veterinary side, with discussions around ruminant productivity, production medicine, disease control, intervention costs, climate resilience and livestock value chains.

ASA approaches the issue from another direction: capital, markets and investment.

Together, the conversations point toward a more integrated understanding of livestock development.

A productive livestock sector requires healthy animals.

Healthy animals require functioning veterinary systems.

Those systems need farmers who can access and pay for services and products.

And productive farmers need markets, infrastructure and finance that allow them to capture value.

Climate resilience was also part of the equation

Climate change featured prominently in the ASA discussions, particularly in the context of climate-smart agriculture, regenerative agriculture, irrigation, renewable energy and green finance.

For livestock producers, climate resilience has direct implications.

Changes in rainfall and temperature can affect pasture availability, water access and feed costs. Extreme weather can damage infrastructure and disrupt livestock movement and markets. Climate conditions can also influence the distribution and dynamics of some animal diseases.

This means that resilience cannot be separated from agricultural finance.

A farmer investing in irrigation, improved feed systems, water infrastructure, renewable energy or climate-resilient production methods needs access to capital with terms that match the realities of agriculture.

That is where financial institutions become part of the resilience conversation.

Processing is as important as production

Another recurring issue at the summit was the need to process more of what Africa produces.

Increasing primary production without expanding processing capacity can leave farmers vulnerable to price fluctuations and post-harvest losses while exporting opportunities and industrial value remain limited.

For livestock, the equivalent question concerns the strength of meat, dairy, leather and other animal-product value chains.

The ability to process, preserve, package and distribute animal-source foods safely can create additional economic value while improving access to markets.

This also brings food safety into the equation.

A stronger food system requires not only more food, but food that can move through formal markets while meeting appropriate standards for quality and safety.

A different way of looking at agricultural investment

One of the clearest messages emerging from ASA 2026 is that agricultural transformation cannot be reduced to giving farmers more loans.

Finance is important, but capital alone cannot fix fragmented markets, inadequate storage, poor logistics, limited processing, weak information systems or gaps in technical services.

Investment becomes more productive when these pieces work together.

That is why the summit brought together actors who ordinarily occupy different parts of the system: banks, investors, government agencies, farmers, agribusinesses, technology companies and development organisations.

The objective was to create connections between them.

The summit’s partner network included organisations such as the International Finance Corporation, GIZ, Propcom+, YAPU Solutions, Sterling One Foundation and other private-sector and development organisations.

The underlying idea is that no single institution can build Africa’s food economy alone.

From Abuja to the next 180 days

The real test of ASA 2026 will not be the number of people who attended the summit.

It will be what happens after they leave.

Will investment deals close?

Will agribusinesses gain access to new capital?

Will commercial partnerships translate into new markets?

Will farmers become better connected to processors and buyers?

Will technology companies gain the support required to scale?

Will livestock businesses secure investment for production, processing and market expansion?

The organisers’ decision to track Deal Room opportunities for 180 days after the summit provides a mechanism for following some of these outcomes.

That makes the next six months particularly important.

The ambition expressed in Abuja is large: an Africa that can produce more, process more, trade more and retain more economic value from its food systems.

But food power is ultimately built through systems, not slogans.

It requires farmers who can produce competitively, veterinary and agricultural services that protect productivity, financiers willing to support viable businesses, processors able to create value, infrastructure capable of moving products efficiently and markets that reward production.

For livestock, it means recognising that the journey from healthy animal to profitable enterprise to accessible food involves far more than what happens on the farm.

ASA 2026 has put that wider system on the table.

The question now is whether the capital, partnerships and commitments generated in Abuja can move from the Deal Room into farms, processing facilities, markets and livestock businesses across Africa.