Dr. Ngozi Okong-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank Group, says Africa has gone past the era of being tagged a continent of Third-World countries. Dr. Okong-Iweala, herself an African, said: "People should look at us [Africa] as a pole of growth. Africa should not only be seen as a continent with cup in hand always looking for aid, but a continent where some of the countries are doing so well they can be seen as middle-income countries." Speaking with the B&FT in an interview at her office, Ngozi said: "Africa has come of age, and we do not just need aid but investments. It is now an active member of the new multi-polar global economy. Old concepts of the Third-World no longer apply in the new multi-polar global economy." Africa has risen over the past decade, changed dramatically and risen in importance as a potential global economic growth pole, she noted. Earlier on Sunday, the Bank's Chief Economist for the Africa Region, Shanta Devarajan, also added his calls for more investment in Africa at a news conference during the just-ended World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC. "This is the time to invest in Africa," Shanta said, crediting the region's economic rebound to the pursuit by African governments of the difficult but extremely rewarding reforms that had propelled Africa's average annual growth rates to between five to six percent during the decade ending 2008. "This is the moment to invest in Africa. We are seeing some rapid growth. Africa is on the brink of a take-off. "Although Africa was the hardest hit by the crisis, its recovery has been so remarkable that we could be at the beginning of what history will describe as Africa's decade," he said. Over a period between 1995 and 2005, 22 non-oil producing African countries were growing at an average four percent. Inflation rates were cut in half across the region. Only two African countries posted inflation rates of above 15 percent in 2005, compared to 13 countries in 1995. Foreign development assistance had increased significantly. Private capital flows had peaked at US$53 billion and, remittances reached US$20 billion. "Growth during that decade was not only broadly shared, but it was contributing heavily to an annual poverty reduction rate of one percentage point; meaning Africa’s rate of cutting poverty was falling faster than India's," Shanta explained. The global financial crisis halted this steady pick-up in growth. The continent’s GDP growth fell four percentage points from 5.7 percent to 1.7 percent last year. An estimated seven million to 10 million more Africans were driven into poverty, and an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 children died before their first birthday due to the crisis. Remittances and revenue from tourism nose-dive, hurting countries like Lesotho (dependent on remittances for 20 percent of its GDP) and The Gambia (reliant on tourism for 30 percent of its GDP). It could have been worse Shanta remarked, applauding African leaders for not letting the political momentum for reforms slip just because the pay-off in growth, jobs and poverty reduction had dried up. He noted that governments across the region combined a series of policies to mitigate the crisis. In countries like Ghana, which had a pre-crisis budget deficit worth 14 percent of its GDP, the country remarkably adopted policies to curb the deficit even as the crisis raged. Nigeria, for instance, turned the crisis into an opportunity to accelerate reforms, reducing subsidies to the gasoline sector and reforming other aspects of its petroleum sector. In countries like Tanzania and Zambia, which had fiscal space created by the boom of preceding years, modest stimulus packages and support to stressed banks were implemented. Showing a stronger commitment to the fiscal discipline, Tanzania's bailout of banks imposed a strict cut-off date of two years for repayment - contrary to the more lavish programmes implemented in many Western countries, including the United States and United Kingdom. Source: B&FT