World Economic Forum to raise $7bn to develop Africa

By Clem Khena-Ogbena

The World Economic Forum on Africa will launch an initiative that will result in raising over seven billion dollars to grow and develop Africa, half of which will be deployed to Nigeria.

The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated this yesterday, in Abuja, during a world press conference, ahead of the Forum, coming up tomorrow, in Abuja.

She said that while focusing on the security problem bedeviling Nigeria, citing the school girls recently taken hostage by men suspected to be Boko Haram members, there was also the need to focus on the underlying medium to long term problems confronting not only the people of Africa, but the entire world so that Africa could solve these problems and have sustainable growth.

According to her, “There were several initiatives that would really benefit the people of Africa, including Grow Africa Initiative, which is supposed to have agriculture and small holdings across the continent that has been able to raise about seven billion investment, more than half of which will be coming to Nigeria. We have African Initiative that will be strengthened .I want to say in this forum that Trade Initiative is being launched and we are going to see a new initiative of State-School Initiative being launched by the private sector in Nigeria, together with Aliko Dangote, Nduka Obaigbena, together with Gordon Brown, who is the UN Envoy”.

She added that the State-School Initiative would be launched tomorrow.

According to her, this initiative would benefit Nigerian children, particularly the children in the North-East.

She disclosed that $90million investment on oil and gas was launched recently, while 2.5billion was invested in the country’s power sector by the private sector.

Iweala disclosed that the two-day event, 7th to 9th May, would also benefit the residents of Abuja- FCT and its economy, all the hotels were fully booked already, adding that a good number of investors would be attracted into the country.