Africa Can Absorb Increased Aid, Needs $60B Annually To Meet U.N. Millennium Development Goals, Officials Say

Senior African financial officials on Wednesday rejected claims that some African countries do not have the capacity to absorb increased development aid because of insufficient financial and management infrastructure, Reuters reports. Malawi Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said that Africa would "grow more rapidly" if it were "cushioned by more donor cash," disputing statements made earlier this week by International Monetary Fund Africa Director Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, who suggested that some African economies had "capacity constraints" that need to be addressed, according to Reuters. Africa is "very far from reaching a point where aid can be excessive," Gondwe said. Charles Salundo, governor of Nigeria's central bank, said Africa needs up to $60 billion in additional resources annually to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing the burden of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. "On the average, there is a need for high resources and also a need for building up capacities and local competences to be able to manage aid much better," Salundo said (Chale, Reuters, 3/16).