Africa needs to embrace economic diversification as well as focus on agribusiness to lift the continent out of poverty and put it on the path to prosperity, a senior United Nations official said today.

"Agriculture is the most important sector of the African economy and will have to be its driving engine out of poverty. It accounts for 65 per cent of the continent's employment and 75 per cent of its domestic trade," the Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Kandeh K. Yumkella, said in a news release.

He added that Africa is also urbanizing at a fast rate, noting that "in order to turn bright prospects into employment opportunities for its young people, Africa needs to embrace economic diversification."

Source: All Africa News