Jonathan reaffirms commitment to reforms, calls for continued World Bank support

President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday in Abuja reaffirmed his Administration’s commitment to the implementation of all reforms considered necessary for accelerated economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation in Nigeria.
Speaking at an audience with the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Mr. Mouktar Diop, Jonathan said that although it was not easy to undertake certain reforms in an intensely political environment, the Federal Government under his leadership will continue to evolve and implement policies that will assure sustainable development and the long-term well-being of the nation.
Acknowledging Diop’s commendation of his Administration’s stewardship of the Nigerian economy, the President said that with the continued support of the World Bank, other international institutions and investors, the Federal Government will achieve an even higher growth rate for the national economy.
Jonathan told Diop: “We will continue to do our best.
“We would have had more robust growth by now but for the global economic recession.
“With your continued support, we will certainly achieve more.”
The President said that Nigeria will particularly welcome more support from the World Bank for the concluding stages of its power sector reforms, especially for the speedy resolution of labour issues and other matters related to the ongoing privatization of the sector.
Diop had praised the ongoing reforms in Nigeria and the management of the Nigerian economy by the Jonathan Administration, which he said had made Nigeria one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world in spite of the current global recession.
The World Bank Vice President also disclosed that by the World Bank’s own criteria and assessment, the level of poverty in Nigeria had actually declined from 48 per cent to 46 per cent under President Jonathan’s leadership.
Diop assured President Jonathan that the World Bank will “use all instruments available to it” to support Nigeria’s power sector reforms, saying that he had a clear brief from the bank’s President to give all necessary support for the reforms.
Speaking with newsmen after the meeting with Jonathan, Diop said: “At the time when the economy is going down, we have seen that Nigeria has been keeping a growth rate which is rather significant.
“So, I was here to hear from the President’s priority and discuss other issues such as how poverty has been evolving in the country and what we can do to accelerate the reduction of poverty.
“Our work recently has shown that there is slight reduction in the level of poverty in Nigeria moving from 48 to 46 per cent.
“The trend is good.
“It needs to be accelerated obviously.
“What we discussed are the policies that we can put in place to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction in Nigeria.
“We also talked about regional issues including the role of Nigeria in the region.
“As you know, Nigeria is an important player in the sub region economically, and it was important for me as I come here, to hear from his excellency Mr. President on how we can collaborate on regional integration and stability in the region, how the development about the economic programmes of the world bank can help the efforts that the political leaders are making to stabilize the region and create situation of peace.
“We also spoke on the issue of the power sector, which, obviously, has been on the mind of everybody in Nigeria.
“We decided at the World Bank to put up a task force, which will include private sector branch to support the reform.
“It is good that the reform is really making progress.
“I was here with the main players of the power sector today, and they were all happy with the reform process so far.
“And we are discussing about benchmark, and timelines to really make sure that the reform is implemented timely and make the issue of outage in Nigeria a thing of the past or history in the near future.”