Jonathan counsels African leaders on good governance

[DT]

President Goodluck Jonathan has called on leaders of African countries to speed up the attainment of their potentials by improving governance structures and curbing illicit financial outflows in order to increase capital investment and diversify the productive base of their economies.  

He stated this yesterday in Perth, Australia, while delivering a key note address titled: "Unleashing Africa's Potentials – A New Vision" to the Commonwealth Business Forum.  

The president, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, also identified illicit financial outflows from Africa as one of the factors hindering the attainment of the continent's full economic potentials.

"As we think of scaling-up growth in Africa, we will, of course, have to factor in Africa's relationships with the global economy. At a time when we are looking for as much resources as possible to drive Africa's economic transformation, we now have to contend with an increasing trend of illicit financial outflows from Africa which is conservatively estimated in the Global Financial Integrity report to be about $854 Billion between 1970 and 2008."

Referring to the current positive rates of economic growth in Africa, President Jonathan declared while an average growth rate of 5% is encouraging, "it has not been sufficient to reach the  target of the Millennium  Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015".

The president also spoke of the need to hasten to accelerate the pace of regional economic integration in Africa to enhance opportunities for economies of scale and competitiveness.

DailyTrust