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World Bank seeking African footprint

David McKay | Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:00
[miningmx.com] -- THE World Bank ought to have greater representation from Africa in order to meet its proposed economic upliftment of the continent, a senior bank executive has said.

“We still don’t have the voice of Africa in the bank. If the raison d’etre is Africa, it should have a bigger voice,” said Paolo Gomes, an executive director of the World Bank. He was speaking at the SAMDA Global Mining Conference.

The influence of policy was still being informed by developed economies. “We need to change the culture of the bank - and it is changing,” Gomes said. “Having more Africans with experience on the ground is very important,” he said.

The appointment of Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank’s new president, was expected to improve the bank’s focus on Africa. The World Bank is helping finance about $6bn in infrastructural investment in Africa but it’s estimated a total of $20bn is expected.

We still don’t have the voice of Africa in the bank

Gomes was doubtful that the shortfall in funding would be met by the private sector, largely owing to the risk posed by the continent. Zimbabwe is a classic case of how fortunes can swing in Africa.

According to a report by Bloomberg News, Africa must more than triple spending on roads, ports, railways and power infrastructure to raise the pace of economic growth to seven percent, the level needed to halve poverty by 2015.

Plans by the G8, a group of the world's eight wealthiest nations, to double financial aid to Africa to $50bn to achieve the goals, won't be enough, Gomes told Bloomberg. Germany spent more than triple that amount on improving services and infrastructure in its eastern region after the country's reunification.

“They spent more than $150m and there is still frustration in East Germany,'' said Gomes. “So do you think $50m will do the trick in Africa, where we don't even have the infrastructure to grow at seven percent,'' he told Bloomberg.

Commenting on Zimbabwe, Gomes said the bank would continue to engage the country in preparation for a change in the country’s politics. But it could not lend money to Zimbabwe because the southern African country was in arrears.

Mukesh Bhavan, vice president of resource projects at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a South African bank owned by Government, said it was “a definite advantage” having an African background.

However, the World Bank and IDC had cooperated on deals in the past, Bhavan said. Both banks are investors in Mozal, an aluminium smelting complex in which giant resources company, BHP Billiton, controls.