Focus on Africa job creation

OUAGADOUGOU – Without sustained attention to creating jobs for hundreds of millions of poor Africans the continent will continue to lag behind the rest of the world, officials said at the anti-poverty summit in Burkina Faso, which ended yesterday.

More than 300 million people in Africa are considered to be extremely poor, surviving on less than one dollar a day (N$6,66). Distribution of the millions of dollars in international aid must be reassessed, said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union.”To accelerate growth and employment on our continent we must increase the investment infrastructure,” Obasanjo told the assembly of 18 heads of state, various UN officials, International Monetary Fund director Rodrigo de Rato and Juan Somavia, head of the International Labour Organisation.”The poor must embrace all available opportunities.And the non-poor cannot continue to enjoy their wealth in the face of massive poverty, which is dangerous for both security and stability.”Population growth is outpacing economic growth, sending per capita gross domestic product down 13 per cent in the last two decades.The labour force is expected to expand to some 366 million job-seekers by 2015.”We must use our own energy and inventiveness to improve the livelihood of our people,” said Callisto Madavo, the World Bank’s vice president for Africa.How to regulate and compensate the informal employment sector, which engages a vast majority of Africa’s poor, notably its women, is also a key priority for promoting economic growth.”There is no poverty of effort in Africa; there is poverty of opportunity,” ILO head Somavia said.Regional integration and cooperation, particularly in the agricultural sector, must improve so as to boost African development, said the IMF’s de Rato.The continent must continue to apply the ambitious program for development known as NEPAD, an effort to promote investment and trade that aims to replace the dependence culture that has characterised international involvement in the world’s poorest continent for decades.Presidents from Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Sudan, Chad, Burundi, Niger, Senegal, the Comoros, Benin, Algeria, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Tanzania and Sierra Leone were among those present for the marathon of speeches on Wednesday morning.Meanwhile, on the same day the World Bank released a report showing Africa as the most difficult place in the world to do business, in terms of regulation.In Washington, D.C., the World Bank released a worldwide regulatory comparison showing 80 per cent of the most red-tape-clogged nations were in Africa.Among African nations, only diamond-rich Botswana, in southern Africa, made the top 20 list for ease of doing business.Bureaucracy in many other African countries dragged out the time and cost of business deals, the World Bank said.Registering a business, for example, takes just three steps in Finland – but 21 steps in Nigeria, the study said.In Angola, the report said, the length of time it takes to enforce a contract has to be measured in years: three of them.-Nampa-AP-AFPDistribution of the millions of dollars in international aid must be reassessed, said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union.”To accelerate growth and employment on our continent we must increase the investment infrastructure,” Obasanjo told the assembly of 18 heads of state, various UN officials, International Monetary Fund director Rodrigo de Rato and Juan Somavia, head of the International Labour Organisation.”The poor must embrace all available opportunities.And the non-poor cannot continue to enjoy their wealth in the face of massive poverty, which is dangerous for both security and stability.”Population growth is outpacing economic growth, sending per capita gross domestic product down 13 per cent in the last two decades.The labour force is expected to expand to some 366 million job-seekers by 2015.”We must use our own energy and inventiveness to improve the livelihood of our people,” said Callisto Madavo, the World Bank’s vice president for Africa.How to regulate and compensate the informal employment sector, which engages a vast majority of Africa’s poor, notably its women, is also a key priority for promoting economic growth.”There is no poverty of effort in Africa; there is poverty of opportunity,” ILO head Somavia said.Regional integration and cooperation, particularly in the agricultural sector, must improve so as to boost African development, said the IMF’s de Rato.The continent must continue to apply the ambitious program for development known as NEPAD, an effort to promote investment and trade that aims to replace the dependence culture that has characterised international involvement in the world’s poorest continent for decades.Presidents from Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Sudan, Chad, Burundi, Niger, Senegal, the Comoros, Benin, Algeria, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Tanzania and Sierra Leone were among those present for the marathon of speeches on Wednesday morning.Meanwhile, on the same day the World Bank released a report showing Africa as the most difficult place in the world to do business, in terms of regulation.In Washington, D.C., the World Bank released a worldwide regulatory comparison showing 80 per cent of the most red-tape-clogged nations were in Africa.Among African nations, only diamond-rich Botswana, in southern Africa, made the top 20 list for ease of doing business.Bureaucracy in many other African countries dragged out the time and cost of business deals, the World Bank said.Registering a business, for example, takes just three steps in Finland – but 21 steps in Nigeria, the study said.In Angola, the report said, the length of time it takes to enforce a contract has to be measured in years: three of them.-Nampa-AP-AFP