Africa loses from poor management of natural resources,says Lopes

Abstract

UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has come out strong against the immense losses Africa incurs yearly through lack of adequate strategy and focus on the management of its natural resource base. In a statement at the opening of the 8th African Development Forum, Mr. Carlos Lopes drew the attention of African policy makers and politicians to four situations in which deals of global magnitude are made on the African continent with little or no financial benefit to the impoverished people and their economies. Stressing the theme of this year’s Forum which is “Governing and Harnessing Natural Resources for Africa’s Development”, Lopes said “time has come for Africa to profit from the 156% increase in mining companies' profits”. Focusing on mining which one of the Forum’s sub themes, he proposed that rather than focusing mainly on collecting taxes on the sector, Africa ought to be using the sector and its resource rents to drive socio-economic development.