• Despite its claims, the conference is not designed to redress poverty and inequality in Nigeria
Nigerian officials are understandably optimistic that the country will benefit enormously from hosting the 24th edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) for Africa, which opened in Abuja yesterday and will end tomorrow. Despite the country’s current security challenges, particularly the two recent fatal bomb blasts in the Nyanya area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a substantial number of the expected 1,000 participants at the event, including some heads of state, had reportedly arrived Abuja by Tuesday.
The theme of this year’s edition of the WEF for Africa is ‘Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs’. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy considers this theme as very apt, given Nigeria’s objective of growing her economy to rank among the top 20 economies of the world by 2020. She says the Nigerian government will seek ways of utilising the WEF to impart needed skills to make unemployed youths employable.
According to Okonjo-Iweala, other benefits that will accrue to Nigeria from the WEF include the Grow Africa Initiative, which is projected to attract investment worth N3.5 billion to the country’s agricultural sector; the Forum’s Skills Initiative, which encompasses a new initiative of Safe Schools launched by Nigeria’s private sector and the health care initiative designed to strengthen access to health care. On its part, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) plans to host 150 of the delegates at a special session tagged ‘Nigerian Investment Platform’, to showcase the country’s huge investment potentials.
Unfortunately, Africa has for decades been the target of diverse conferences, workshops, plans, initiatives, agendas and programmes designed to extricate her from the trauma of underdevelopment. Yet, the continent’s plight only gets steadily worse. It is instructive, for instance, that despite having the largest economy in Africa, being endowed with huge mineral and natural resources and posting an impressive economic growth of at least 7 percent over the last decade, the vast majority of Nigerians are among the poorest people on earth. We can thus imagine what would be the fate of less endowed African countries.
It is all too obvious that a plethora of events like the WEF will not bring about the transformation of Nigeria or Africa. Perhaps it is time for a rigorous cost-benefit analysis to ascertain the utility of these talk shops. For instance, Abuja will be practically shut down for the duration of the WEF because of insecurity. The economic implications will be staggering. The attention of the whole world is currently focussed on Nigeria for the wrong reason – the abduction by Boko Haram of over 200 school girls from Chibok in Borno State for more than three weeks now. Whatever rhetoric may pour forth from the WEF in Abuja, very few serious investors will channel their funds into such an insecure environment which also suffers a debilitating dearth of infrastructure and power supply.
That Nigerians do not know how much is being spent to host the WEF is an example of the lack of transparency that undermines good governance and development. The impediments to the development and transformation of Africa are already too well known and we do not need any talk shop to teach us anything new. The money expended on such extravaganza as the WEF should be used to provide modern infrastructure like roads and railways, provide uninterrupted electricity supply, enhance security and create the necessary environment for businesses to thrive.
Once this is done, investment will naturally and irresistibly be attracted to take advantage of Africa’s immense potentials. The key to Africa’s development lies in visionary, competent and disciplined leadership rather than the soaring but sterile rhetoric that has characterised the WEF over the years.
