Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that conditional cash transfers to the poorest segments of the society would energise the economies and create multiplier effects on the economy.
He said: “Conditional Cash Transfers to the poorest segments, universal primary healthcare schemes, school feeding programs can energise local economies and create important multipliers in the economy.”
Osinbajo spoke today in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire at the investiture of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina as the new President of African Development Bank. He represented President Muhammadu Buhari.
He made it clear that time has come for Africans to re-think some of the time-worn economic ideas and myths that have held its people and policy makers bound to only a few options.
Professor Osinbajo called on Africans to develop uncommon creativity, innovation and change in charting the pathway for future growth and development of countries in the continent.
The Vice President said that western economies, particularly the United States of America toed this path to emerge from its recent economic meltdown in 2008.
According to him: “in 2008 western economies faced with what Ben Bernanke (then Chairman of the US Reserve Bank) described as the “deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression” abandoned conventional free-market thinking and embraced State bankrolled stimulus plans to forestall the imminent collapse of their economies.”
He said that the action the US took then proved once and for all that the monster called the economy cannot be allowed to prowl the streets with its free-wheeling, free market struts without the leash of a trainer.
He stressed the need for African countries to embark on a new strategy in the face of daunting challenges even as he asked: “do African economies not require a different paradigm? How can trickle down paradigms work when half our populations are extremely poor? Do we not need some attention to social investment?”
The Vice President however expressed optimism that the African Development Bank, given its recent achievements under the immediate past President, Donald Kaberuka, can greatly assist Africa to address some of its socio-economic problems.
He said that under the new leadership of Dr. Adesina “the AfDB needs to redouble its efforts in addressing the needs of these fragile areas, through institutional support, emergency assistance, and bold pro-poor interventions in health, education and agriculture.
Professor Osinbajo appealed to the new AfDB President to focus on how economic policy can produce economic empowerment for women, and all categories of the people who have become disempowered and whose voices are seldom reflected in the rhetoric of policy.
The, new AfDB President, unfolded a 5-point agenda which he said would be given utmost priority in the next five years of his tenure.
In the inaugural statement delivered after he had taken the oath of office, Dr. Adesina listed the priority areas as i) Light Up and Power Africa; ii) Feed Africa; iii) Integrate Africa; iv) Indusrialize Africa; and v) Improve quality of life for the people of Africa.
Dr. Adesina spoke passionately about his commitment towards confronting the numerous challenges facing the continent, saying: “unlocking the potentials of Africa for Africans will be our goal at AfDB.” [myad]
