The World Bank said that it lacked accurate data on
Nigeria’s poverty index.

The bank’s Chief Economist,
Mr Shanta Devarajan made the clarification via a video Conference for
African countries to launch ‘Africa’s Pulse’, an analysis of issues shaping
Africa’s economic future.

“What is happening to poverty rate in Nigeria, to be honest,
we don’t know, there is a lot of controversy around the estimation of the
poverty rate he lamented adding that “we actually don’t know whether it is
going up or going down but I say that the fact that we don’t know is, in
itself, a problem.

“And it tells me that we really need to invest in data,
statistics so that the public knows what’s going on; and these goes back to the
whole idea of transparency.’’

He said that the value of data was not only for decision
making but for the public to hold politicians accountable.

Commenting on the latest African pulse, he said that new
discoveries of oil, gas and other minerals in African countries would generate
a wave of significant mineral wealth in the region.

He noted that the economic importance of natural resources
would likely continue in the medium term in several established oil and mineral
producers.

“The African region’s established oil producers represent
less than 10 per cent of the shares of global reserves as well as annual
production.

“Nigeria, the largest regional producer, can keep supplying
at 2011 level for another 41 years, while Angola, the second producer in the
region, has about 21 years remaining at current production level before its
known reserves are depleted.’’

He said that given by the size of the reserve, the
dependence of oil resources in the two countries would likely move near to
medium term.

Devarajan said that production in new mineral countries such
as Ghana, Mozambique, Sierre-Leone and Uganda could last for substantial number
of years.

He said that in 2010, Guinea represented over 8 per cent of
total world bauxite production; Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo had a
combined share of 6.7 per cent of the total world copper production.

The chief economist said that Ghana and Mali together
accounted for 5.8 per cent of the total world Gold production.

“Resource-rich African countries have to make the conscious
choice to invest in better health , education and jobs; and less poverty for
their people because it will not happen automatically when countries strike
riches.’’

Also, Ms Punam Chuhan-Pole, the team leader of the Africa’s
Pulse, said Africa had witnessed improved macro-economic policies and called on
leaders to build institutions that would help to manage the new discoveries in
the continent.

He said that Nigeria and many other countries still ranked
low in the human development index and noted that only six per cent of the
revenue generated in such countries had actually affected the lives of citizens
positively.

“One of the important things we have found out is that
institution really matter; institutions can make a big difference to the way
resources are going to be translated.

“One of the things we want to look at is how well other
countries are doing in terms of institutions and quality of governance; such
dimension of governance like transparency, accountability, and rule of law.

“And if you look at African countries, they usually don’t do
that well on indicators of accountability, rule of law and control of
corruption.’’

She said that political will was the panacea to inclusive
economic growth in the region.

Reports say that the analysis, which is done twice in a
year, indicates the Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow at 4.8 per cent in
2012, unchanged from 4.9 per cent growth in 2011.

Africa’s growth, according to the analysis, is on track in
spite of setbacks in the global economy.