"Africa needs unity to fight poverty"

By Nelson Chenga

FOR two days 18 African heads of state met in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to map out new strategies to rescue 40 percent of the continent's 821 million people from crippling poverty under the theme "Strategies for Employment Creation/Promotion and Enhancing Sustainable Livelihood".

And like all conferences the leaders hatched a plan that included bolstering the backbone of Africa's rural economies — agriculture — as well as supporting the rapidly expanding informal sector to create as many employment opportunities as possible.

But after all has been said and done fighting poverty on the world's poorest continent is a much more complicated job than mere conferences and paperwork.

Bemoaning the state of Africa's most populous nation, Nigerian Minister of Labour and Productivity Alhaji Hassan Lawal aptly summed up the problem recently.

"It has now become clear that the major goals of growing the entire Nigerian economy in general and its components in particular cannot be realised if we continue with the status quo strategies and policies," said Lawal.

Full Article : herald.co.zw