Corporate Governance Will Reduce Poverty, Says Oceanic Bank official Dr. Ibru

from All Africa

By Idris Ahmed,

The reduction in the poverty level is due to strict adherence to corporate governance and the government's partnership with the private sector, the Chief Executive of Oceanic Bank International Plc, Dr. Cecilia Ibru has said.

She said both the private sector and the government must continue to cooperate and develop the real sector being the engine of growth in any economy.

According to her, if the African heads of government adhere to strict corporate governance, poverty would be reduced to the barest minimum in the region.

Delivering a paper titled "Measuring Corporate Governance and Risk" in Africa at the Africa Investor Index Award, New York Stock Exchange, United States, last week, Ibru explained that commitment to improving the corporate governance profile in the African countries would enhance the governments' ability to implement with the scarce resources, development policies that is capable of reducing poverty in all ramifications.

Making a case for the use of microfinance recently at another function, Ibru, lamented that despite the broad consensus regarding the importance of micro finance as a poverty alleviation tool, not less than two billion people are currently excluded from access to financial services.

"The situation is particularly dire in most least developed countries especially African states, where often more than 90 per cent of the population is excluded from access to the formal financial system", she said.