Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development







	Twenty-fifth meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development Opening Speech for the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Baba ijo Olusegun Olujimi O. Ogunkua, OON, mni at the Opening of the Committee of Experts of the 40 th Session of the ECA and Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, May 13-14, 2006 Protocols: It is an honor, as the Outgoing Chair of the Committee of Experts of the Commission of the United Nations Economic Commission, to welcome you all to the 40 th Session of the Commission of ECA and the annual ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development. Dear Brothers and Sisters: Please permit me to begin my brief remarks by first congratulating Mr. Abdoulie Jannneh on behalf of the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on my own behalf, and on behalf of all of you, on his appointment as the Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. We look forward to working very closely with him. I would also like to congratulate the incoming Chair of the Committee of Experts, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of of Burkina Faso. Permit me, Mr. Permanent Secretary to, through you to thank the Government and People of Burkina Faso for their generous hospital and for making this excellent facility available for our Conference. Ladies and Gentlemen: Africa is growing. ECA's 2006 Economic and Social Survey of Africa estimates that Africa grew at an annual rate of 5.4% in 2005. World Bank's recently released 2006 Global Monitoring Report concurs with that estimate. Overall, there is evidence that Africa is turning the bend. However, as these same reports show, there is no concomitant growth in employment creation and poverty reduction. According to most reports, headcount poverty is actually increasing driven in part by high population growth rate and the very narrow base of recent growth, concentrated, as it has been, in the extractive sector. The poor employment performance is also attributable to weak implementation of our poverty reduction strategies and national development plans. The employment situation in Africa is very bad. It is a clear and present danger to our recent successes and must be tackled head on. It is for this reason that we, in Nigeria, agree that the choice by ECA of "Meeting the Challenge of Employment in Africa" as the theme of this year's Conference is most appropriate. I call on all of us as experts to help our governments to think through the employment challenge and advise on how best we can not only create new job but also improve the quality of the jobs that we create. Jobs that are not satisfactory are no jobs. As the ECA points out in the Economic and Social Survey 2006, one possible explanation for the poor job growth is the concentration of growth in the extractive sector. This is a challenge for all of us and our countries. We must, therefore as a collective, proffer solutions that adequately address the prospects and possibilities of diversification of our economies. It is my view that without economic diversification, our recent growth will not be deepened nor secured. As part of the on-going effort to consolidate and improve on our modest gains in economic growth in Africa in recent years, and based on the promise of our President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, to African Heads of State and Government at the African Union Meeting in January, 2006, Nigeria is hosting the Conference on Financing for Development in Africa at Abuja in Abuja from 20 th - 21st h May, 2006. It is my hope that Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development from all African countries will attend the Conference. We, in Nigeria, believe that the on-going, efforts, interactions and sharing of ideas amongst African countries must continue to facilitate the fast-tracking of the transformation of the economies and improve the quality of life of our people. Ladies and Gentlemen: Last year in Abuja, the Honorable Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in her address to you, challenged you to be bold and innovative in your thinking about our continent's multifarious and multifaceted problems. That challenge remains as relevant and as poignant today as it was then. We wear the shoes and we know where it hurts. It is, therefore, my hope that you would accept that challenge and rise from this meeting with renewed vigor and commitment to devise innovative and bold ideas of how our continent can overcome the poverty and employment challenge. Less than a decade to 2015, this is critical if our continent is to achieve the targets of the Millennium Declaration Goals. It is also immensely critical for advancing the NEPAD, the African Project, agenda. I wish you successful deliberations. Thank you, baba ijo Olusegun Olujimi O. OGUNKUA, OON, mni Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Finance Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Abuja FCT NIGERIA