Despite being severely criticised by many African governments for not helping them, the Bank has in fact invested more than $60 billion for various projects on the dark continent. “But, what you must do now is to strongly support the SME sector in your countries,” Ezekwesili said in a live video conference last week.
“We now have more access to our information policy at the World Bank but we want you to closely monitor the SME sector in each of your countries because they have great potential. You should not only watch World Bank projects, but watch your governments. Africa’s hour is now,” she told African journalists.
“The World Bank is just a facilitator.Your entire national budget must be accounted for and your civil society needs to ensure that it does this. What are your governments doing with the money that we (World Bank) give them?” She said SMEs also attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which is currently lacking in most African nations today.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Development Bank (ADB) were set up to help struggling African nations – but they could not do so because there were few “concrete projects to support” as well as rampant corruption by some high ranking government officials, she added.
Post published in: Manufacturing