The World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have advised Ghana and other oil producing countries to look beyond the oil resources in the face of the plummeting crude oil prices on the international market.
They gave the advice at the opening of the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The event which attracted some 800 leading decision-makers from Africa and elsewhere is being co-organised by Paris-based magazine group, Jeune Afrique and AfDB focused primarily on development priorities of African businesses.
The Vice President for Africa, World Bank, Makhtar Diop maintained that the time had come for African oil producing countries to pay serious attention to the diversification of their economies.
This, he explained was the only way these oil producing countries could be spared in future declining oil prices on the international market.
Mr Diop also urged the African oil producing nations to investment more in agribusinesses, and science and technical education to boost their manpower needs.
He used the occasion to reiterate his call on African countries to add value to their export commodities including gold, diamond, bauxite, and cocoa.
The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Donald Kaberuka who shared the same views expressed by the World Bank chief added: “We need to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth on the continent”.
To this end, the bank is set to grow its private sector portfolio and play a greater co-investment and co-financing role beyond its annual investment target of around US $2 billion per annum, he said.
Touching on the wide infrastructural gap, Dr Kaberuka noted that through its private sector window, the AfDB invests in infrastructure, financial institutions, industries, and agribusiness, manufacturing and service sectors in Africa.
It supports African enterprises to become more competitive at home and abroad, while continuing to attract foreign investment. An increasing demand for private-sector participation through innovative partnerships, presents significant opportunities for growth, synergy and impact, according to him.
For the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic for Africa (UNECA), Carlos Lopes, in spite of the challenges confronting the African continent, the future is brighter than before.
In his welcoming address, the Vice President of Groupe Jeune Afrique, Amir Ben Yahmed underscored that; “the economic uncertainty made it natural choice for the forum to debate the issue of the business environment. There is no doubt that extremely favourable macroeconomic trends have until now buoyed our companies’ growth”
This bright picture, he noted has too often made it possible to delay crucial economic reforms. Otherwise, how do you explain that 36 African countries are still in the bottom 50 of the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings, Mr Yahmed questioned?
He explained: “It is with the aim of helping to bring the continent to the same level as top performing emerging economies that we have placed this important issue at the heart of our discussions”
African Eye News.com
