Sahel Consulting Rallies African Leaders to Build Sustainable, Homegrown Food Systems

Sunday Ehigiator

Policymakers, business leaders, farmers, and development partners from across Africa gathered for the Sahel Food Systems Changemakers Conference 2025, organised by Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd. in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, Heifer International, and GIZ.

Themed “Designing for Legacy: Building Resilient and Impact-Driven Food Systems,” the conference called on stakeholders to rethink how agricultural systems are designed and sustained. It emphasised the need to shift from short-term interventions to long-term, people-centred transformation that drives measurable impact.

In his opening remarks, Mezuo Nwuneli, Co-founder of Sahel Consulting, highlighted the urgency of preparing Africa’s food systems for population growth. “Over 500 million people will be added to Africa’s population over the next 10 years, and these individuals need to be fed,” he said. “We’re either going to do it with homegrown food or with imports. We need to boost yields, improve efficiencies, and enable farmers to grow more. Most importantly, we need homegrown solutions, not copy-and-paste models from elsewhere.”

His comments set the tone for discussions on innovation, self-reliance, and policy reform to strengthen Africa’s food value chains.

Temi Adegoroye, Managing Partner at Sahel Consulting, expanded on the conference theme, stressing the importance of embedding sustainability in every agricultural initiative. “Designing for legacy means embedding sustainability right from the start,” she said. “It’s about building systems that begin with people and shifting from short-term fixes to long-term transformation. True impact isn’t about how much we spend, but about programmes that continue to create change long after funding has stopped.”

She called for closer alignment of agricultural projects with national priorities and stronger institutional frameworks to sustain outcomes beyond donor cycles.

The Honourable Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, commended Sahel Consulting for convening a platform that links policy, private innovation, and grassroots action. “Building resilient and impact-driven food systems should be hardwired into every economic plan,” he said.

Co-founder Ndidi Nwuneli spoke on leadership and local action, urging participants to prioritise local sourcing. “When you source locally, you support our farmers, strengthen distributors across the value chain, and deliver better for your people,” she said.

The conference featured Action Roundtables, where participants agreed on key commitments across governance, climate-smart agriculture, youth and women inclusion, and financing. Each group outlined steps to sustain collaboration and measurable progress.

As discussions closed, participants agreed that Africa’s food future must be homegrown, sustainable, and built to last.