African Food Security, gov’t seal strategic deal to boost economic growth, dev’t.

A Memorandum of Understanding, to this effect was reached between AFS and government July 22, 2024.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of African Food Security, Alan Kessler, represented by the AFS project manager, Patrick NKOUKE, put pen on paper for the deal on behalf of the organisation while the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, signed on behalf of government.

As stated by the CEO of African Food Security, the organisation will leverage on the deal to align itself with Cameroonian local communities by creating employment and providing educational, health and sports integration. 

The official said the organisation will through the deal engage series of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy actions in sustainability within communities to boost economic growth and development. 

CEO underscores importance of deal 

Speaking in Yaounde, the CEO of AFS, Alan Kessler, stated that: “It is imperative for our business operations to integrate ourselves both from an employment, social responsibility, and philanthropy perspective into the communities where we operate”.

He added that “access to water, health and protein resources are imperative and we are highly aware reputations are continually earned, locally, regionally and nationally”. Kessler said African Food Security strives to “become a company that is one with our communities”.

AFS strives to achieve all SDGs

The CEO of African Food Security further stressed on the organization’s resolve to achieve all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

Kessler said by achieving all the SDGs, African Food Security aims at “enabling wealth creation and development of local communities”.

He said the Cameroon program, as a proxy, “helps local nutrition, water access, maternal pregnancy, protection of biodiversity of the rainforest, prevention of encroachment of desert, protein access, mitigation of carbon emissions, reduction in methane emissions (Scope 3), whilst still creating tax revenue, employment, and tertiary specialized education for the country and community.

Commenting on the deal, AFS Chairman in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Zayd Baba, stated that: “Production sharing and profit sharing are keys to our economic model. Direct contributions to our communities will help us build an enduring Food Security company for the next century”.

Revisiting strides of AFS programme 

The African Food Security, it should be said, has recorded strides in several domains. 

In education as stated previously, AFS platform has built numerous affiliations with tertiary educational institutions including an official partnership with Michigan State University (MSU) College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) .This alliance will enable transfer of educational skills to local communities to enhance knowledge in the fields of cattle nutrition, carbon absorption and offsets, and management of agronomy and livestock related resources, in areas where tertiary education specific to agriculture may not be developed. 

AFS, officials also added, will supply computers to primary and secondary schools in rural communities in Cameroon. This educational initiative, they added, will set up computer study rooms for students to access the internet and will contribute to closing the digital literacy gap in Cameroon.

It was also disclosed that AFS will provide a dynamic silver based water solution for purification, bringing safe drinking water with a simple treatment application. 

In the domain of sports, AFS projects are initiated with soccer and basketball. The idea is creating local soccer leagues with different villages in surrounding communities, and providing all necessary resources, contributing uniforms and equipment enabling these local teams to thrive. 

Strides in pushing sustainability 

AFS also has commitment to agricultural best practices, evident in its partnership with FLUX, a carbon dioxide removal company with the technology to scale permanent carbon dioxide removal in Africa. 

The platform’s collaborative effort has the potential to permanently remove 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere whilst improving food security by boosting maize yields, reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers, improving soil fertility, and creating jobs. AFS is additionally working towards other solar based power sourcing for primary farming.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3213 of Thursday August 29, 2024