Saturday, September 10, 2011

AFRICA CHALLENGED TO INCREASE ECONOMIC GROWITH TO 7 P.C

The World Bank says Africa's economy should start growing at seven per cent per annum in order to lift a larger segment of its population out of poverty.
World Bank vice-president for the African region Obiageli Ezekwesili said the continent's current five per cent economic growth rate was not sufficient to lift majority Africans out of poverty.
She said renewed strategies which include raising competitive levels through value addition, increasing employment opportunities, building on the continent's vulnerability and resilience to external economic shocks would help spur the required growth to address escalating poverty levels.
She further said that African countries needed to improve their governance levels. Despite the economic gains the continent has recorded in the past, countries continue to face persistent long-term development challenges, among them undiversified production structures, low human capital, weak governance, climate change and low levels of women empowerment.
According to the World Bank, governance and leadership are the main challenges underlying Africa's development. Ezekwesili said the continent needed to approach the governance and public sector capacity from both the demand and supply sides.
On the demand side, she says there is need to strengthen the citizen's voice using instruments of social accountability and to exploit the immense potential of ICTs to provide them with innovative ways to enable citizen-centred governance.
"Growth is important for poverty reduction, but currently it is not sufficient," Ezekwesili said in her keynote address to journalists from 27 African countries, including Zambia, who convened via a video link on Thursday to dialogue on the role of the media in Africa's development.
"The quality of the growth, the sustenance of the growth, and the structure of the growth matters to how rapid the poverty can be tackled…5.7 per cent projected in the coming year and beyond is not sufficient. The continent must begin to grow at a level of at least seven per cent per annum on a consistent basis,” she said.
Further, she said that a sustained upward growth trend of seven per cent would lift a larger population of the continent out of poverty.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

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