Zelenskyy names Ezekwesili, others ‘Grain from Ukraine’ envoys

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has been named former Vice President World Bank and Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, and two other African leaders, as ambassadors of the Ukrainian government’s ‘Grain from Ukraine’ program.

Ms Ezekwesili is also a Senior Advisor at the African Economic Development Policy Initiative; Founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance and President of Human Capital Africa.

The two other African ambassadors of the initiative are the former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, and the Regional Director for the Central and West Africa Program at the National Institute for Democracy, United States, Christopher Fomunyoh.

Ms Banda is a committee member of the African Women Leaders Network, a board member of the Tana Forum for Peace and Security in Africa, as well as the Club de Madrid, a global organization of former heads of state and government.

‘Grain from Ukraine’ is an initiative of the Ukrainian government to help countries suffering from an acute food crisis as a result of the war with Russia.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest producers of wheat and, together with Russia, exports nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley.

In addition to interacting with other global experts, the African ambassador for Grain from Ukraine also discussed the results of involving international donor partners in the implementation of the initiative, increasing the mechanism for receiving funds from partners, food shipments and visits from the Ukrainian delegation to Africa.

The Head, Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, in a recent virtual meeting, announced that the three Africans joined international experts and leaders to support the initiative.

According to him, since the launch of the initiative in November 2022, more than 30 donor countries have signed up. These include Qatar, Turkey, Japan, Norway, Korea, Canada and the US. So far, participants have pledged almost $200m.

“We see the prospect of developing the project. To do this, we need a reliable partner with extensive knowledge and connections,” said Mr. Yerimak.

At the meeting, last week, he introduced and welcomed Ms Ezekwesili, Ms Banda and Mr Fomunyoh as the first set of African ambassadors for the initiative.

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In her speech, Ms. Ezekwesili noted that Ukraine’s active and effective initiative to fight the food crisis is not only in the African continent, but also in the whole world.

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“We are talking about millions of people around the world, who will receive this support. These people will suffer if they do not have food on their table,” he said, adding that 62 million people in Africa suffer from food insecurity because of one or something else.

“This initiative should support long-term policy measures on the continent to increase investment and increase agricultural productivity. That’s why we and the world consider Ukraine as a country that, despite the war, is doing important things to ensure food security,” he added.