[Nigeria] Nigerian Minister laments poverty, unemployment levels in Africa

from The Angola Press

The economic growths in most African countries are not resulting in significant job creation and poverty reduction on the continent, Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said here Sunday.

Addressing the opening 39th session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, in the Burkinabe capital, she said although the economies of more than 20 African countries were growing persistently at more than five percent per annum, the growth had not addressed job creation and poverty alleviation.

"... there is a blemish, very serious blemish, on our recent growth performance. The blemish is the poor employment creation record of our recent growth. In most of our countries, economic growth is not resulting in significant job creation and therefore in poverty reduction," declared Okonjo-Iweala, the outgoing chairman of the ECA Conference of African Finance Ministers.

The Minister noted that the constituency for reforms in Africa would be small if the benefits of the reforms were not broadly shared, warning that it would be extremely difficult to secure improvements in growth performance and indeed in political stability under these circumstances.