ACCRA-World Bank President Robert Zoellick said adherence to the rule of law, fighting corruption and ensuring transparency would create the right climate for investment in Nigeria.
Zoellick told newsmen on the sideline of the Third High Level Forum in Accra, that Nigeria had “great potential” for growth.
“Nigeria is a country with great natural resources and part of the other resources
is the rule of law, the anti-corruption, the transparency procedures that help create a better investment climate,” he said.
He said creating the right investment climate would require change on the part of donors and their partners,adding that the private sector must be given an upper hand in promoting investments.
“Another aspect is in connecting the private business sectors and this is another area we are trying to work out with the International Finance Corporation.
“Much of the global trade system now has global sourcing. Lets take agriculture for instance, you can get good product now in West Africa but the product has to meet what they call sanitary standards for the U.S. and Europe, ” he said.
Zoellick said negative reports on Africa had misrepresented the reality of 5.9 per cent to 8.1 per cent growth in the continent in the past 10 years.
“In many countries outside Africa they only see the problem. It is useful to know that Africa growth rate was at the same level with other developing countries, except for China and India.
“In the past 10 years, about 17 African countries, represented 34 per cent, grew to an average of 5.8 per cent and they had no oil.
“Then another set of countries, about eight of them that had oil, grew an average of 8.1 per cent and they represented 30 per cent of the population,” he said.
Zoellick, however, said there was need for an improvement in agriculture.
“Africa is a region that has not been able to develop its agriculture as effective as other regions.
“Africa’s depends on 4.9 per cent irrigation for its products while in South Asia it is 40 per cent, ” he said.
Zoellick said statistics on Africa had shown that more than 50 per cent harvest was lost every year to poor storage, road network and other ailing infrastructure.
He said the World Bank was already trying to increase its agriculture support from the current 46 billion dollars (N5.3 trillion) to developing countries in order to create a green revolution in Africa.
On its part, Zoellick said the World Bank had been able to streamline some of its operations to ensure faster and more flexible response to country needs.
He said the need to be faster and flexible became apparent in the face of the global food crisis that had placed more responsibility on the bank.
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