President Obasanjo Drums Support for NEPAD

President Olusegun Obasanjo, today in Abuja, Nigeria reiterated Nigeria's total commitment to the goals and objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and stressed that this initiative offers Africa the best opportunity to move forward with the rest of the world in this century. He made the declaration at the opening of the first Commonwealth-Africa Investment forum.

2. President Obasanjo told his audience that several multilateral institutions including the Commonwealth, the European Union, the Bretton Wood Institutions, etc.support NEPAD and expressed his delight that the investment forum is organized to complement the goals and objectives of NEPAD. He emphasized that the priority for the continent is Foreign Direct Investment, in order to achieve 7 percent GDP annual growth and attain the target to reduce by half, the proportion of Africans living in poverty by the year 2015.

3. President Obsanjo then commended the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) organizers of the forum for bringing together government representatives at the highest level and their private sector counterparts since according to him, this will guarantee a balanced deliberation and ensure that reasonable conclusions are reached.

4. Finally, President Obasanjo noted that the CBC, rightly encourages best practices in the areas of governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and called on corporate organizations in Africa not to be pre-occupied only with their balance books but to also have concerns for the general well-being of their host communities in terms of infrastructure development and environmental protection.

Bolaji Adebiyi
Nigeria Information Service Centre
April 22, 2002.