African Development Bank develops 10-year plan – focusing on growth and maintaining momentum

The African Development Bank revealed that it has developed a 10-year plan and strategy that would focus on the economic transformation of the African continent.

In a statement issued earlier this week, Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, said the strategy, approved by its executive directors, emphasized quality and sustainable of growth of Africa.

Kaberuka said, “Our 10-year plan reflects Africa’s vision for itself – a vision of transformation that is achievable. It is a 10-year vision, which can make this continent the global growth pole that we know it can be and want it to be: a place fit for our aspirations and those of our children. The Strategy reaffirms our bank’s strategic choices around infrastructure, economic integration and the private sector. We will build climate resilience and sustainable management of natural resources.”

According to him, the strategy identifies the five main channels through which the bank will deliver its work and improve the quality of growth in Africa.

“The key areas include infrastructure development, regional economic integration, private sector development, governance and accountability, skills and technology,” he said.

The bank president said that the plan would seek new and creative ways of mobilizing resources to support Africa’s transformation, especially by leveraging its own resources. He said that wider use of public-private partnerships, co-financing arrangements and risk-mitigation instruments will draw in new investors.

“In a decade of seismic shifts in the global economy, Africa has defied the pessimists and experienced significant growth. That economic growth must now translate into real economic transformation, which will bring jobs and opportunities to its citizens,” the bank’s president added.

“That is what makes the next decade so decisive and the African Development Bank’s strategy for 2013 to 2022 so vital.”

Source: News Agency of Nigeria