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November 30th, 2006
Nigeria: African Ambassadors' Forum Urges Prudence Over Debt Relief
Elkanah Chawai, Daily Trust (Abuja)
The 3rd African Ambassadors' Interactive Forum yesterday urged for the full
utilization of funds accruing from debt relief for growth and sustainable
development.
Participants sought creative ways to make African embassies a gateway for
economic prosperity and investments as a nexus of cooperation between
African countries in a bid to strengthen regional development.
The president of African Business Roundtable and chairman of NEPAD Business
Group, Bamanga Tukur, in his opening remarks, said that debt cancellation
captures more revenue for development and can help countries achieve the
Millennium Development Goals.
He said that the debt relief has far reaching consequences for African
countries, saying that the extra money has been used to provide basic needs
across the continent.
He, however, hinted that it has been discovered after the historic events in
Mexico where rich nations pledged increased aid for poor countries and the
G8 meeting in Gleneagles where heavy debts by some countries were cancelled;
some countries have fallen deeper into the debt quagmire.
"We are particularly disturbed when statistics presented by the World Bank
President, Paul Wolfowitz, in one of his papers, gave indications that some
countries that had their debts earlier cancelled were already back in more
debts, pointing into the fact that cancellation of debts alone may not
necessarily translate to economic growth and sustainable development if the
right business and investment environment are not created to increase
productivity."
He regretted that since the MDGs were adopted six years ago, there have been
little progress and urged Africans to take advantage of the World Bank's
African Action Plan which aims to support Africa's growth adding that the
task of development can-not be a burden of one sector alone and that there
needs to be concerted efforts and partnership at all levels of governance
for sustainable development.
He called for the stamping out of corruption, bad governance and civil
strife in the continent and encouraged democracy and accountability with
special support to the Peer Review Mechanism under the NEPAD initiative.
The Director-General of the Debt Management Off-ice, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, said
in his presentation on "Undestanding Debt Relief and its Implications: The
Case of Nigeria," that the $18 billion debt relief has presented various
opportunities for Nigeria including the availability of resources for
infrastructure and human development and the saving of $1 billion which the
country spends annually on debt service payments being channeled into
provision of basic services.
He commended the inter-national community's role in Africa's development and
called for the reform of global trade policies.
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