Posted by By Emma Ujah on
ABUJA - The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, has said that Africa remained poor, owing to a combination of three main factors....
ABUJA - The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, has said that Africa remained poor, owing to a combination of three main factors: poor human capital, inadequate investment funds and obsolete technology.
Addressing the on-going Sullivan Summit in Abuja, yesterday, she said that the three core problems plaguing the continent must be tackled head-on, if meaningful socio-economic development were to be achieved and move Africa to be at par with other regions of the world.
Her words, 'the paucity of capital, technology and human capital has rendered Africa unable to effectively fight poverty and underdevelopment. Globalisation and economic growth have, in part been facilitated by advancement in technology which has significantly reduced the cost and increased the speed of communication.
'Technology has integrated the financial and production systems around the world, reducing production and delivery processes and enhancing the mobility of capital.
This integration has widened the development gap between Africa and the rest of the world and is mainly caused by a combination of low level of economic activity, costly technology and poor human capital.
'The development gap is also worsened by African countries'' inability to develop the enabling environment required to attract significant private foreign capital, in order to harness the gains of globalisation."
According to the minister, if Africa was ever to catch up with the rest of the world, there was need to achieve and sustain high growth rates at a level that would eliminate poverty in the region.
To achieve such high growth rates, she pointed out, ' heavy investments are required in priority sectors such as infrastructure (including technology) and human resources development."
Mrs. Usman said the challenge for Africa and the friends of Africa was to raise the required private foreign investment under favourable terms to finance the critically necessary imperatives for development.