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nairaland.net • View topic - Highly Educated Roaming the Streets

Highly Educated Roaming the Streets

Highly Educated Roaming the Streets

Postby Richard Akindele » Mon May 15, 2006 4:49 pm

Nigeria's minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has lamented that economic growth in most African countries has not translated into significant job creation and poverty reduction.

Addressing the 39th session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)/Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Okonjo-Iweala noted that in spite of more than 20 African countries growing at more than five per cent per annum, it had not addressed job creation and poverty alleviation.

"But there is a blemish, very serious blemish on our recent growth performance. The blemish is the poor employment creation record of our countries. In most of our countries economic growth is not resulting in significant job creation and therefore in poverty reduction," NAN correspondent covering the conference quotes the minister as saying.

According to her, "the evidence stares us in the face on the streets of our major cities: young men and women trained at substantial expenses by their families and governments
roam the streets with little to do; some operating motorbike taxis in the absence of something to do and in some cases engaging in criminal activities."

The minister, who is the outgoing chairman of the ECA and Conference of African Finance ministers, said that the constituency for reforms in Africa would be small if the benefits were not broadly shared, adding that it would be extremely difficult to secure these improvements in growth performance and indeed in political stability under the circumstances.

She said that Africa should therefore address the economic, social and political issues of employment creation, meaningful and decent jobs for its teeming youths.

The minister said that the past year had been momentous, especially in the degree of attention Africa received from the international community.

She, however, said that the resource picture in Africa was improving and that "further development of our large economies including South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt to
become regional drivers of growth would provide some additional degrees of freedom against the vagaries of the international market."

Okonjo-Iweala said that the improved growth performance of many African countries showed that "we are increasingly managing our economies better" and that "in most of our
countries, the fight against corruption and mismanagement is methodical, assiduous and unrelenting. Believe me, the fight is rough both on the economic and political front."

She welcomed the new executive secretary of the ECA, Abdoulie Janneh, who formaly worked for the UNDP and assured him that "we applaud your success and elevation and do know for sure that with you in the saddle, we have a true believer in the prospects and possibilities of our continent."

"We are in no doubt that under your leadership, our countries' relationship with the ECA will be further strengthened and deepened," she said.

Okonjo-Iweala noted the ongoing reform programme to refocus the ECA and said that regional integration and addressing Africa's special needs were areas the ECA had comparative and competitive advantage and could add considerable value to the work of finance ministers.

She advocated a new thinking in the area of regional integration, new approaches to planning, finance and implementation of regional public goods, not just the infrastructure programme, but also diseases and pest control, as well as a new thinking on economic diversification.

The minister warned that "the promise of regional integration will remain unfulfilled and economic growth impact on poverty will remain shallow until and unless we diversify our economies."

Earlier in a welcome address, the president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, commended the ECA for its support towards economic growth and development of the continent.

Compaore, who was represented by the country's foreign minister, Youssef Ouadraogo, noted that poverty and unemployment were responsible for political instability in some African countries and called for urgent action to tackle the twin problems.

He said that the ongoing reform in the ECA was necessary to position the continental body to respond to the economic needs of the countries in Africa, which lack the capacity and in some cases, the political will to tackle poverty and unemployment.

He urged the meeting to come up with the framework for African countries to attain the millennium goals.

Compaore said that Burkina Faso was already addressing the issues of poverty and unemployment through the creation of the enabling environment for business growth and the development of IT and micro projects.

Finance ministers from about 35 countries and their representatives and over 200 observers from the UN, ILO, IMF, WHO and NGOs are attending the ECA meeting.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Richard Akindele
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