Nigeria’s Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has called for sustainable and inclusive
growth for Africa at a high level G20 Finance Ministers seminar held in Paris at
the weekend, reports ITRealms.
The Finance Ministers, ITRealms
reports, met to discuss current challenges to the international financial
architecture and ways of combating macroeconomic volatility.
The high-level seminar also assessed volatility in capital
flows and their impact on global economic conditions.
Speaking at the opening plenary session alongside Christine
Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of
the Banque de France, Valdis Dombrovkis, Vice President of the European
Commission and Wolfgang Schauble, Minister of Finance, Germany, Minister
Adeosun acknowledged the progress that has been made in the international
financial architecture since the 2008 global financial crisis.
She noted that the first line of defence is sound
macroeconomic policies, which Africa in general and Nigeria specifically, is
trying to tackle with a series of fiscal housekeeping initiatives.
The Minister said that there had been excessive focus on GDP
as a measure of economic progress, which often concealed vulnerabilities,
particularly inequalities. She called for a more holistic measure of economic
growth.
She highlighted the risks associated with international
capital flows and warned that African economies need to be insulated from the
disruptive effects of volatile short term portfolio flows.
Africa can build the necessary resilience, she said, but
there must be more careful management of capital flows and a move towards long
term and sustainable growth.
Minister Adeosun said that an essential component of more
careful management of capital flows was to build better economic mapping and
surveillance to manage risks and spill-overs, which she said should be a
priority for G20 Finance Ministers.
Adeosun called for more understanding and flexibility for Africa
to grow and protect key markets, as developed countries had done while at
Africa’s current stage of development.
She highlighted the need for long term partnerships and
foreign direct investment into African economies to deliver the necessary
investment, particularly in infrastructure, to unlock sustainable growth.
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