African countries will require a whopping $72 billion in external financing each year to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the targeted year of 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, said in New York yesterday.

Mr Ban, therefore, called on industrialised countries to implement the pledge they made at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005 to double their development aid to Africa, otherwise the prospect of African countries achieving the MDGs would be undermined.

The UN Chief was addressing a High-Level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs on the wings of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The meeting is part of the preparatory work of the UN towards another high-level meeting on MDGs in New York on Thursday.

The meeting is being held against the background of concerns expressed by the international community that Africa was lagging behind other world regions in the achievement of the MDGs.

In 2005, the group of eight industrialised countries agreed to double their aid to Africa by 2010 but, unfortunately, by 2006 overall aid development assistance to Africa (excluding debt relief) had risen by only eight per cent and since then aid to the continent has been dwindling.

Mr Ban said getting $72 billion from the international community to support development initiatives in Africa should not be perceived as insurmountable.

“The price tag may look daunting but it is affordable and falls within existing aid commitments,” he stated.

His optimism, he said, was grounded on the premise that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) spent $267 billion last year on agricultural subsidies alone.

Mr Ban said most of Africa’s economies were now growing more strongly but said that notwithstanding, Africa remained off track in its quest to achieve the MDGs.

“No one is more alarmed than you at the current trends, which indicate that no African country will achieve all the goals by 2015,” he stated.

The African Union Chairman, Mr Jakaya Kikwete, who is also the President of Tanzania, called for renewed impetus on the part of the advanced countries to meet the promises they had made to provide the resources for the development of Africa.

He said Africa was disappointed at the failure of the international community to meet its pledges to increase its development assistance to the continent.

He said lack of adequate resources was the critical obstacle to Africa’s development.

Story by Nehemia Owusu