IRELAND:African policymakers in need of a strong demonstration of how to overcome challenges need look no further than Ireland, the managing director of the World Bank said last night.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister and foreign minister of Nigeria, said "there are many lessons which African countries today can learn from the Celtic Tiger's economic miracle".
In her speech, A Transforming Africa - Opportunities and Challenges, Dr Okonjo-Iweala said she was "optimistic" for the future of Africa as both the democratic and business climate are improving.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala was delivering an RTÉ Littleton Lecture, which will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 2pm on New Year's Eve.
She said democracy was maturing in Africa and that in the past two years about half of the countries in the region had held multiparty elections.
"These elections are by no means perfect and may sometimes be seriously flawed, but they point to an encouraging trend . . . We must all remember that sometimes it takes decades, even centuries, to build a strong democratic tradition."
Speaking of the continent's economy, Dr Okonjo-Iweala said "the deepening regional integration in many parts of Africa today is bearing fruit".
