Tinubu seeks equitable access to capital for developing countries

NIGERIA has called for a financing mechanism that will ensure equitable access to capital for developing countries to enable them to meet their development needs.

President Bola Tinubu made the call at the ongoing Summit of the NonAligned Movement ( NAM) countries, held in Kampala, Uganda.

Speaking at the meeting, Tinubu stated that the combined population of the 120 countries that made up the NAM was over 4.4 billion or about 55 percent of the world's population, yet the total financial resources available to all of them is much less than that of some countries. He said: "The total budgetary resources for the 120 countries are less than $ 3.5 trillion, which is less than the budget of the United States alone. The aggregate public debt of less than $ 6.6 trillion, mostly at higher interest rates and shorter tenor, is about onesixth of one or a few developed countries."

The President, who was represented at the meeting by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, said the startling data are clear evidence that the NAM countries suffered from lack of access to capital and resources for development. "More often than not, public debt available to developing countries is far more expensive and not substantial enough to make an impact. Therefore, we wish to advocate a financing mechanism and equitable capital market access that can provide adequate financial resources to the global south," he said.

Tinubu listed the challenges facing the world including climate change, conflict and wars, terrorism and widening inequality.

"All these are happening as we are battling to come out of the COVID- 19 pandemic. No one nation can tackle these multidimensional challenges," he stated.

He stressed that the challenges called for greater collaboration among member states as they struggled to achieve sustainable development goals.

The theme, ' Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence', the President, bore relevance with the current trend of wars, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, threat of use of nuclear weapons and the dangerous polarisation among developed countries, like the era of the Cold War.

"In this regard, we must recommit to the foundational principles of NAM to better assure global peace and security," the President maintained.