World Bank MD offers recipe for Africa's redemption

World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says agriculture and infrastructural development are the pivot about which economic transforation for Africa can be realised.

Speaking in an exclusive interview to Joy FM's Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah at the World Economic Forum for Africa on how the continent can weather the current crisis, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said Africa must not see itself as a victim in the crisis.

The World Bank Managing Director maintained that Africa's economies must regard the global economic crisis as a challenge for growth.

She said the continent must focus on areas that provide the brightest opportunities for their economies.

“We should be looking into those areas that provide the most opportunity for investors both domestic as well as foreign,” Mrs Okonjo-Iweala stressed.

She said discussions at the forum portrayed an investor interest in a mix of commercial agriculture and adding value to agricultural produce.

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala added that the continent must also look at drawing its own programmes it wants the World Bank to support rather than signing up for programmes that have already been drawn out for them.

Hundreds of African business and political leaders including several heads of state are attending the programme to discuss a possible response to the global economic crisis.

The meeting dubbed the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town is expected to be dominated by the recession on the continent.

One of the key events on the program is the release of the African progress report which will offer solutions on how a united African leadership can address challenges to the continent's continuous development.