We Will Not Allow Nigerians, To Die Of Hunger – World Bank

President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, on Thursday vowed that the organisation will not allow famine and hunger kill Nigerians in the North-East region.

He assured that World Bank was deploying tools and financial support required to respond to the famine plaguing the region and some other countries across the globe.

Jim Yong Kim said this in his opening remarks at the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington DC.

The devastation by Boko Haram has left nearly five million people in the North-East region desperately hungry and risk starving to death, according to figures from the United Nations.

UN also describes the current wave of famine as the worst in 70 years.

Jim Yong Kim lamented that “the world was caught unprepared” by the situation Nigeria and some other countries.

He said: “Too often, we forget about crises as soon as they abate – leading to a cycle of panic and neglect. We’re already working with the affected countries and partners to respond to the famine – and we will use every tool we have, financial and advisory, to prevent famine in the future.

“This won’t be easy. It will require agreement across the entire international development finance system – multilaterals and bilaterals – to move the global development architecture in this direction,” Kim said.

The World Bank boss added that “We are encouraged to see stronger economic prospects after years of disappointing global growth. There are still many downside risks, however, and countries that have the fiscal space need to continue with structural reforms. This is vital to accelerating the sustainable and inclusive economic growth needed to end extreme poverty by 2030.

“We’re meeting at a time when we face several overlapping crises, both natural and man-made, all of which add urgency to our mission. We have to find new and innovative ways to reach the poor, and make the world more secure and stable. Last week at the London School of Economics, I outlined how we’re working to change our approach.

“We have to start by asking whether the private sector can finance a project. If the conditions aren’t right, we will work with our partners to de-risk that project or, if needed, de-risk entire countries or sectors. Here’s the good news: There’s never been a better time to find those win-win solutions.

“There are trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines, earning little interest, and investors are looking for better returns. That capital should be mobilised to help us meet the exploding aspirations of people all over the world. And with the crises we face, our task is much more urgent than we ever thought.”

Kim said one of the things that the Bank found was that foreign direct investment often had much higher impact, much stronger impact on improving institutions and government than aid to low income and under-developed countries.

“This is why we’re trying to bring together the financing we provide to governments and also the financing that comes from the private sector to create better institutions, more investment, more jobs, more economic growth in a much more synergistic way”, he said.

In her address, Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde urged Nigeria and other low income countries to step up research and development, innovation, revisit housing policies in their countries in order to drive sustainable growth.

“Stronger cooperation across counties would help reduce external imbalances, clamp down on excessive tax evasion and avoidance and would help deliver the Sustainable Development Goals so that the low income countries can also reap the benefits of improved productivity,” Lagarde added.

 

By Wale Odunsi

Nigeria Moving Out Of Recession – World Bank

Economic growth in Nigeria and some Africa counties is rebounding in 2017 after registering the worst decline in more than two decades in 2016, according to the new Africa’s Pulse, a bi-annual analysis of the state of African economies conducted by the World Bank.

Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola, the continent’s largest economies, are seeing a rebound from the sharp slowdown in 2016, although the recovery has been slow due to insufficient adjustment to low commodity prices and policy uncertainty.

World Bank in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Wednesday, said the Sub-saharan region is showing signs of recovery, and regional growth is projected to reach 2.6% in 2017.

“However, the recovery remains weak, with growth expected to rise only slightly above population growth, a pace that hampers efforts to boost employment and reduce poverty”, World Bank said.

The latest data reveal that seven countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania) continue to exhibit economic resilience, supported by domestic demand, posting annual growth rates above 5.4% in 2015-2017.

“These countries house nearly 27% of the region’s population and account for 13% of the region’s total GDP. The global economic outlook is improving and should support the recovery in the region”.

Africa’s Pulse notes that the continent’s aggregate growth is expected to rise to 3.2% in 2018 and 3.5% in 2019, reflecting a recovery in the largest economies.

The region had experienced a slowdown in investment growth from nearly 8% in 2014 to 0.6% in 2015.

“As countries move towards fiscal adjustment, we need to protect the right conditions for investment so that Sub-Saharan African countries achieve a more robust recovery,” says Albert G. Zeufack, World Bank Chief Economist for the Africa Region.

“We need to implement reforms that increase the productivity of African workers and create a stable macroeconomic environment. Better and more productive jobs are instrumental to tackling poverty on the continent.”

“With poverty rates still high, regaining the growth momentum is imperative,” says Punam Chuhan-Pole, World Bank Lead Economist and the author of the report.

“Growth needs to be more inclusive and will involve tackling the slowdown in investment and the high trade logistics that stand in the way of competitiveness.”

The Africa’s Pulse report dedicates a special section to analyzing the region’s infrastructure performance across sectors, revealing dramatic improvements in quantity and quality of telecommunications contrasted by persistent lags in electricity generation and access.

Overall, the report calls for the urgent implementation of reforms to improve institutions that foster private sector growth, develop local capital markets, improve infrastructure, and strengthen domestic resource mobilization.

By Wale Odunsi

Nigeria Needs A Conducive Environment, To Create Jobs - Okonjo-Iweala

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said she had high hopes for the country, while she was growing up.

The former World Bank director stated this on a panel at the Mo Ibrahim Forum in Morocco.

“When I was 18, the world seemed open, prospects from my country seemed good; we had come out of a war, we were united and rebuilding so it seemed like a place where there was a lot of opportunities because we were reconstructing the country, there were a lot of jobs.

“I had very high expectations of a country where it would have what it needed infrastructure wise and people could go up and down the ladder anywhere they pleased”, she said.

Okonjo-Iweala also singled out unemployment as one of the greatest challenges Nigeria was battling with.

“When we think about creating jobs, which is the biggest problem our economy is faced with, we want to get very practical to talk about what we should be doing rather than the theory,” she said.

“One thing is important, you can not create these jobs unless you have a conducive environment in the economy that enables and encourages your domestic private sector to invest as well as the foreign private sector so that is where it begins”, she added.

By Ifreke Inyang