‘$100bn aid available for African countries to access’

There is a pool of 100 billion dollars for African countries to use to improve trade according, Mr Joachim Monkelbaan of International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), has said.

Monkelbaan, Head, Global Platform on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainable Energy of ICTSD, made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.

He said the initiative would fast-track Africa’s development but expressed regrets that in spite of the huge amount of money, only few countries had applied to draw from the fund.

“There is almost 100 billion dollars in aids for trade waiting for the next few years, this is an enormous amount and there are not many applications for the money up till now, which is very striking.

“There is a lot of money waiting, but countries simply don’t apply for it because they may not be aware how easy it is to get the money,” he said.

Monkelbaan said that the initiative could improve trade performance and improve lives, especially those of women in developing countries.

According to him, the initiative can also play an important role in enabling firms in developing countries to connect or move up value chains.

Monkelbaan said that the fund covered a wide range of issues that were currently confronting countries on the continent.

He named the issues as trade, environment, development and climate change, among others.

He, however, said that there was no concrete commitment on climate change funding by the rich countries during the climate change negotiations in Warsaw in November 2013.

According to him, the rich countries are not willing to pay for damage that climate change has caused in the developing countries. ( NAN)