Okonjo-Iweala Urges Nigeria, Africa to Double Growth Rates, End Aid Dependency

Sunday EhigiatorThe Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday, called on Nigeria and other African countries to urgently strengthen their economic foundations, double growth rates and end reliance on foreign aid, declaring that “those days are over.”Speaking at the convocation ceremony of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, held yesterday in Zaria, Okonjo-Iweala urged African nations to come together in new “plurilateral coalitions” to seize emerging global opportunities, while focusing inward to build resilient, competitive economies capable of creating jobs and prosperity.According to her, “First, we need people to come together in new plurilateral coalitions to take advantage of new opportunities in what some, like Prime Minister Makani, recently called variable geometry,” she said.“Second, we must look more to ourselves and introduce more economic security and prosperity both nationally and regionally. Third, we can no longer depend on any other nation coming to assist us with aid. Those days are over. They are over.”She stressed that countries must critically examine their economic management and investment climate.“Each country needs to look at its economic foundations and ask itself, am I doing everything I can for the economy? We have to clean up our internal economic management and make ourselves more attractive for investment by domestic, regional and global investors,” she said.Okonjo-Iweala warned that unemployment, particularly among young people and graduates, posed a serious threat to social and economic stability.“When I travel around and I see the enormous numbers of young people, including young graduates, who are on our streets and in our homes without jobs, I know we have to create jobs,” she said.According to her, Nigeria and Africa must aim much higher in terms of economic expansion.“The goal for Nigeria and Africa needs to be to double GDP growth rates to six or seven per cent and to sustain the higher pace long enough to transform people’s living standards and economic prospects,” she said.She noted that such growth is achievable, citing examples across the continent.“We know this is within reach because some countries on the continent are showing the way,” she said, adding that Ethiopia averaged 7.6 per cent growth over the past decade, Rwanda 6.9 per cent and Côte d’Ivoire six per cent.Quoting African Development Bank data, the WTO chief said, “11 of the world’s 20 fastest growing economies in 2024 were African,” stressing that these countries “are demonstrating to the continent and to the world that African economies can grow when their priorities are right.”Focusing on Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala said current growth levels were inadequate. “Our economy is projected to expand by a respectable 4.4 per cent this year according to the latest IMF projections. But once you factor in population growth, per capita living standards will rise by only a bit more than two per cent per year. So we need to do better. We need to double our yearly growth rate,” she said.She warned that weak growth in Africa’s largest economies was dragging down the entire region.“The whole continent’s economy is being held back by sluggish growth in sub-Saharan Africa’s economic giants, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa,” she said, noting that “Nigeria alone represents close to 70 per cent of ECOWAS GDP in purchasing power parity terms.”Okonjo-Iweala emphasised the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), saying, “This is a great instrument that could increase intra-African trade by as much as 45 per cent by 2045.”She added that, according to the World Bank, fully implementing the agreement “could boost GDP by seven per cent above trend by 2035 and lift 40 million people out of poverty.”She also criticised Africa’s heavy reliance on raw commodity exports. “Africa’s exports are still 60 per cent raw materials and commodities,” she said, warning that, “When the bulk of export income comes from raw commodities, economies are heavily exposed to price volatility.”On global supply chains, she said Africa must seize opportunities created by what the WTO calls re-globalisation.“The present crisis has only served to underscore the perils of over-dependence on China for key supplies and inputs and on the United States for market demand. Africa can benefit from re-globalisation by attracting supply chain investment in a wide range of sectors.”She urged investors to manufacture renewable energy equipment locally. “We should be looking to manufacture all these items that we import at home, not just in China.“Let our leaders make the appropriate investment in the investment environment here to make that happen.”Highlighting Africa’s demographic advantage, Okonjo-Iweala said, “On an ageing planet our young populations represent the world’s talent pool of the future,” noting that by 2050 Africa would account for about 25 per cent of the global working-age population.She also drew attention to Africa’s mineral wealth, saying, “The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the continent holds nearly 30 per cent of the world’s known mineral reserves,” adding that clean-energy-powered mineral processing could be “good for jobs, good for growth, good for the planet.”While citing positive examples from Ethiopia, Morocco, South Africa and West Africa, she lamented Nigeria’s declining textile industry.“I actually did my undergraduate work on the Nigerian cotton textile industry, and it is so distressing to know we’ve lost 100,000 jobs in textiles in this country,” she said.On governance and security, Okonjo-Iweala was blunt. “We need to visibly fight corruption,” she said, adding that “very few investors will risk their capital if they feel insecure. Nigeria needs to deal with the security problem.”She concluded with a call for collective responsibility. “It’s not only about leadership, it’s also about followership,” she said. “Will we demand more of our leaders? Will we demand more of ourselves?”Addressing the graduating students, she urged them to be courageous and purposeful. “Be bold, be tenacious, be dauntless, be willing to do what is right, be willing to stand up for what is right.”