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Nigeria 'wasted' 30 years of oil income: IMF chief
Reuters/IMF /Stephen Jaffe/Handout
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (L) answers a question during a joint news conference with Nigeria's Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola (R) in Abuja February 27, 2008.
ABUJA
Petroleumworld.com Feb. 28 2008Nigeria "wasted" 30 years of oil income, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday as he warned the country against the dangers of neglecting the non-oil sectors of its economy.
"Nigeria has had 40 years of oil but for the first 30 years it wasted the proceeds from that oil," Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with AFP and French radio station RFI.
"One of the risks Nigeria faces is neglecting the non-oil sectors of the economy .. of being dazzled by the oil, and tomorrow by the gas, and that the rest of the economy is slowly abandoned," he warned.
But the IMF chief, conceded that the Nigerian government has changed its strategy since 2004. He cited ongoing fiscal reforms and the mechanism for saving surplus petroleum income when oil prices are high.
"There's been a lot of wasted time and a lot of wasted money for the (Nigerian) people but today I can sense a determination to do things differently," he said on his second day in the Nigerian capital where he met with President Umaru Yar'Adua, before the latter left for China.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest producer of crude oil and the world's eighth oil exporter, comes in for regular criticism because of the way its oil wealth fails to trickle down to the masses.
At least 50 per cent of the population gets by on less than a dollar a day.
Some recent economic reforms have borne fruit -- notably the cleaning up of the banking sector -- but the country's infrastructure is slowly decaying amid government indifference and electricity and gas are luxuries for most Nigerians.
Strauss-Kahn kicked off his first Africa tour as IMF chief in Burkina faso on Monday. Thursday morning he will head for Tanzania, the last leg of his trip.
Story from AFP
AFP 27 1826 GMT 02 08
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