Mahama, World Bank Boss, others launch ‘Poverty Report’

As part of the global commemoration of World Poverty Eradication Day, president of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim; visited Ghana to launch a report dubbed “Poverty in a Rising Africa”.

He was joined by President John Dramani Mahama, Prime Minister of Congo, Augustine Matata Mapon, President of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina and other dignitaries at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra late last week.

The World Bank President stressed the need for the global community to take keen interest in programs that will help to end poverty by 2030 deadline.

President Mahama for his part said; despite the successes chalked with the Millennium Development Goals, the time had come for Africa to take advantage of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to frontally confront poverty.

He added that, eradicating poverty by 2030 may be over ambitious. But he remained optimistic that it could be achieved.

The "Poverty in a Rising Africa" report estimates that 388 million people or 43 percent of all people living in sub-Saharan Africa experienced extreme poverty in 2012.

The report however, called for much better measurement of poverty, because data gaps make it extremely difficult for policy-makers to target programs for the poor.