Corruption breeding poverty in Africa — IMF boss

IMF will launch programme to help reduce corruption.

Africa must deal with chronic corruption if it must eradicate poverty, the head of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Christine Lagarde, has said.

Mrs. Lagarde, who made the statement on Friday at the Africa Rising Conference in Maputo, Mozambique, said poverty thrives in an atmosphere of lack of transparency and accountability.

“There is need for transparency in information sharing and in the use of internet to enable people to know the correct things happening in Africa,” she said.

Mrs. Lagarde said that IMF would launch an initiative which would help in tackling corruption and tax problems on the continent.

According to her, IMF is consolidating its partnership in three key pillars of building infrastructure, institutions and development of the people.

In her contribution, the acting Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sarah Alade, admitted that corruption remained a major challenge in Africa.

She called for policies that would help reduce corruption in the region, pointing out that transparency was imperative in public and private businesses for growth and development.

She said that if the people and government saw corruption as a “monster”, they would jointly fight it to “standstill”.

Also, the Cabinet Secretary to the Kenyan Government, Henry Rotich, said the best way to tackle corruption was to ensure that proper and strong institutions were established.

Mr. Rotich said that such institutions would help to bring rule of law and good framework to operate, stressing that with the right institutions, structural transformation could take place.

The theme of the conference, organised by IMF and the government of Mozambique was “Building the Future”. (NAN)