Nigeria: Moghalu - Africa Needs Economic Transformation to Prosper

Tami Hultman/AllAfrica
Dr. Kingsley Moghalu speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.
17 June 2013
This Day (Lagos)
By Obinna Chima

The Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, has stressed that Africa can only prosper through far-reaching economic transformation.

A statement at the weekend quoted Moghalu to have made this remark in his new book titled: "Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy's 'Last Frontier' Can Prosper and Matter," made available at the weekend. The book is distributed by the African Press Organisation on behalf of Bookcraft.

The book also highlighted the impact of globalisation, foreign aid, investment, Africa's trade with China, the knowledge economy, the world trade amongst others.

"Emerging Africa sets out to interrogate the prevailing conventional wisdom about Africa and its economic growth prospects, and go beneath the surface of both afro-optimism and afro-pessimism to decode and address what really has held Africa down and how the continent can prosper and matter in the world through far-reaching economic transformation," Moghalu said.

The statement also said the deputy governor was partly motivated by the deluge of newspaper and magazine articles about the rise of Africa, and the attendant new scramble for playing space in the continent, adding that the author cut swiftly "through buzz and hype and sentiment to deliver a weighty, forward-looking and realistic assessment."

Commenting on the book, Professor of Economics, Oxford University, Paul Collier, said: "Africans seriously analysing Africa's opportunities are all too rare. Kingsley Moghalu writes with insight and authority. Emerging Africa deserves a wide audience."

On her part, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said: "Kingsley Moghalu brings a remarkable intellect and his vast experience to this tour de force on Africa's economic transformation."

"Emerging Africa offers a profound perspective on how African countries can achieve true prosperity," the CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said.

Also, a former United Nations Under-Secretary General, Shashi Tharoor, said: "Insightful and analytical, Kingsley Moghalu's book, Emerging Africa, sheds instructive light on Africa's position in the world."

Prior to his present appointment, Moghalu was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sogato Strategies S.A., a global strategy and risk management firm in Geneva, Switzerland. He spent 17 years working for the United Nations, at duty stations in New York, Cambodia, Croatia, Tanzania and Switzerland.

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