The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, His Excellency, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, on Tuesday 23rd August, 2022, received former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Their discussions focused on several high-profile themes, foremost of which were security and development issues and among other things, the Agenda for the Agricultural Transformation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ATA-DRC), an initiative of the DRC Head of State, implemented in February 2022 by the Ministry of Agriculture.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Agricultural Leadership Institute (AALI ) provided technical assistance to this multimillion-dollar initiative.
In addition to the crucial role played in the peace process in DRC over 40 years ago, President Obasanjo has played an enormous unifying role in mobilizing African heads of state and development partners to transform the agriculture sector in Africa.
Both Nigeria and DRC benefit from these efforts, especially with the Zero Hunger project in Nigeria and the ATA-RDC project in DRC.
It is within this framework that President Tshisekedi Tshilombo responded favorably to the request of CGIAR Africa Director and IITA Director General, Dr. Sanginga Nteranya, to sponsor the inauguration of the Biotechnology Laboratory and support the research campus located in South Kivu named President Oluségun Obasanjo IITA research campus in 2019 when it was inaugurated.
The ATA-DRC program has the vision of making the agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries sector competitive without damaging the environment. The project also aims to create sustainable jobs around agricultural value chains, contributing to food and nutritional security and wealth creation.
It is within this framework that the Government of DRC, through the Ministry of Agriculture, signed a technical assistance agreement with IITA for implementing the ATA-DRC while building public sector capacity and facilitating public-private partnerships.
Photo: (L-R): H.E Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian President during the visit on Tuesday.
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