Suleiman: Improving Rural Agricultural Output Critical to Reducing High Food Prices, Tackling Hunger

Nume Ekeghe and Oluchi Chibuzor

The Managing Director of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, has emphasised the need for the country to seek strategic collaboration of resources across private and public impact investments that would improve rural agricultural output and boost production.

This, he maintained, would help in reducing the high food prices and also align critical players for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) across all sectors.

He disclosed this yesterday at a press briefing to announce the forthcoming Africa Social Impact Summit 2022, that would enable impact investors to design market-led solutions and accelerate impact investment into Africa to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs).

The summit with the theme, “Rethink, Rebuild, Recover: Accelerating Growth for the SDGs,” will be held in Lagos. 

According to him, Sterling Bank feels that for as long, “as we think of impact as something as we do as corporate responsibility or some kind of charity, then we also know we are limited with the amount of resources we are going to put in that space.

“Our commitment to take the things we describe as impact and bring them to the mainstream such that they become part of the businesses we do. When we started this it sounded very difficult or almost impossible, but we have seen a huge shift in public opinion and business strategy over the last five years.”



Speaking, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sterling One Foundation, Mrs. Olapeju Ibekwe, noted that to achieve the SDGs one must run on collective impact.

For her, partnerships and getting  SDGs ingrained into businesses remains imperative in affecting the lives of the people and can only be achieved when investors collaborate in market-led businesses solutions to draw people from the bottom of the pyramid.