The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has called for sustainable and inclusive growth for Africa.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Festus Akanbi, Special Adviser, Media, to the Minister on Friday in Abuja.
The statement said that the minister made the call at a high-level seminar of G20 Finance Ministers held in Paris on Thursday.
It said that the Finance Ministers met to discuss current challenges to the international financial architecture and ways of combating macroeconomic volatility.
The seminar, it added, assessed volatility in capital flows and their impact on global economic conditions.
The statement quoted Adeosun as saying that the first line of defence was sound macroeconomic policies, adding that Africa in general and Nigeria specifically, had been tackling with series of fiscal housekeeping initiatives.
Adeosun said that there had been excessive focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic progress, which often concealed vulnerabilities, particularly inequalities.
She, therefore, called for a more holistic measure of economic growth and essential component of more careful management of capital flows to build better economic mapping.
She also stressed the need for surveillance to manage risks and spill over, adding that this should be a priority for G20 Finance Ministers.
Adeosun highlighted the risks associated with international capital flows and warned that African economies needed to be insulated from the disruptive effects of volatile short term portfolio flows.
“Africa can build the necessary resilience, but there must be more careful management of capital flows and a move toward long term and sustainable growth,’’ she said.
She also called for more understanding and flexibility for Africa to grow and protect key markets as developed countries had done.
The minister also called for long term partnerships and foreign direct investment into African economies to deliver the necessary investment, particularly in infrastructure, to unlock sustainable growth.
The statement said that the meeting was called at the request of China, which is chairing the G20 this year, and aims to make reform of the world’s financial architecture a top priority.
The statement said that the Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, Vice-President, European Commission, Valdis Dombrovkis, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, attended the occasion.
Others were Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau;
Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, France, Michel Sapin, and Minister of Finance, Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble.
It said that Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom, George Osborne, and Minister of Economy and Finance, Italy, Pietro Padoan, also made the list of those that attended the event.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the G20 is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.
The members include 19 individual countries and the European Union (EU). (NAN)
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Reporting by Babatunde Akinsola in Lagos, Nigeria.
