Investment Summit speaks of new era for Africa
A summit backed by a US foundation to discuss investment and the growth of the private sector in Africa opened yesterday in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, with about 500 delegates.
"The opportunities are there for you to tap … A new era is dawning in Africa," said Nigeria's foreign affairs minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in her opening remarks to the seventh Leon H Sullivan summit.
She urged participants to deliberate on the summit's theme of Financing and Investing in Africa's Private Sector, stressing that now was the time for Africa to take advantage of global investment opportunities.
Ten African leaders said they would attend, along with the prime ministers of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago former US president Bill Clinton and the World Bank's director-general, Paul Wolfowitz.
The summit brings together world political and business leaders, delegates representing national and international civil and multilateral organisations, and members of the academic institutions to focus attention and resources on Africa's economic and social development.
It aims to marshal resources to expand the private sector, build more economic infrastructure and transfer technology to Africa.
Leon H Sullivan, an African-American who worked on the international humanitarian stage, died in 2001. He devoted his life to the development of the poor and the disadvantaged in America and Africa.
Source: Business Report
