African Development Bank Acting Chief Economist and Vice-President Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa was guest speaker at the annual lecture of the Nigerian Economic Society on Thursday, August 13.

In his presentation, Kayizzi-Mugerwa presented a paper titled "Development State in Africa - The Quest for Inclusive Growth and Economic Transformation", highlighting the key attributes and lingering issues of a developmental state. The presentation suggested the priorities of the development state in Africa are the elimination of poverty, utilization of resources for the betterment of the African population, ensuring that African minds are given space to ponder Africa's future and establishing mutually beneficial trade relations with other countries on the continent and abroad.

The paper concluded that Africa can and should exploit the benefits of the global economy and urged that civil wars and other sources of fragility (i.e. poor neighbourhoods) are made things of the past.