The official launch ceremony of the program REWARD took place on February 13, 2026. This launch marks an important milestone towards the strengthening of climate-resilient rice production, improving seed systems, strengthening the capacities of transformation and acceleration of progress towards rice self-sufficiency in West Africa.

The program will allow according to the African Bank development to reduce imports, strengthen regional integration and making rice value chains more resilient. The launch ceremony brought together senior representatives of beneficiary countries, national units of project implementation, research institutes and partners of development. The multinational technical support project REWARD-AfricaRice, initiated and financed to the tune of 8.5 million US dollars by the Bank African Development Programme, was “developed to strengthen the chains of value of rice crops thanks to the improvement of rice seed production, from sustainable agricultural practices to processing technologies improved and regional coordination.” It will be implemented on a period of five years until 2029 and will cover fourteen countries in Africa from the West: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Liberia, Mali, Mali, Mali, Niger, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The REWARD program aims to treat persistent structural challenges in the rice sector. It answers to the imperative need to transform rice into a strategic product in this region where demand continues to increase due to growth rapid population and urbanization.

According to the regional division manager for agriculture and agro-industry in West Africa at African Development Bank , Eklou Attiogbevi-Somado, “the REWARD program is part of the strategy of African Bank development aimed at strengthening systems food in Africa. By investing in rice value chains resilient, we support regional integration, job creation and long-term economic stability in West Africa.”

For his part, the director General of AfricaRice, Baboucarr Manneh indicated that “self-sufficiency in Rice in West Africa is both an economic and a security imperative food. Thanks to REWARD, we combine science, innovation, reinforcement institutional and regional coordination in order to set up chains of resilient rice values that benefit farmers, processors and consumers throughout the region.”