Our top priority is to end extreme poverty by 2030 —World Bank

World Bank’s Group President Jim Kim said the bank was determined to boost shared prosperity to end extreme poverty by 2030.

Kim said this at the Brooking Institutions on the eve of the World Bank/IMF Annual meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday. The Theme of the conference is “We can end poverty together.’’

Kim said a new World Bank survey showed how income inequality among peoples had decreased, and inequality within nations had fallen in many countries, both rich and poor.

“Today’s report identifies strategies to address inequality that even the poorest nations can adopt whether through conditional cash transfers, connecting farmers to markets or rural electrification.

“The lesson is that inequality is not an unsolvable mystery. Pro-equality policies are not luxury goods and can work in any country.

“Ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity is our bottom line. We will achieve these goals in three ways: firstly, accelerating inclusive and sustainable economic growth, investing in human capital, and by fostering resilience to global shocks and threats.’’

Kim said to end poverty, massive infrastructure and no matter how much money the bank and other international organisations were investing would never be enough to bridging that gap.

He said that in recent years, the demand for infrastructure investment had far outstripped available resources.

He said that according to a World Bank survey, about 1.2 billion people in the world do not have electricity.

“At least 660 million people lack access to safe drinking water; about one billion people in low-income countries lack access to an all-weather road.

“While more than three billion people now have access to the internet, still, more than four billion people do not have access.

“It is estimated that emerging markets and low-income countries face an annual gap of up to $1.5 trillion dollars a year in infrastructure finance,” he said.

Kim said to address this and substantially boost global economic growth, the bank would create opportunities for public private partnerships in emerging markets.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that about 3000 delegates from member countries and aspiring member countries are expected to attend the meeting which would take place from Oct 7 to 9.

NAN also reports that a high powered delegation from Nigeria, led by Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele and stakeholders would attend the meeting.