BY EMMA UJAH, Abuja Bureau Chief

As the the World Economic Forum Africa, WEFA, ended in Abuja, weekend, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged Nigerian media and their counterparts in Africa to join in the campaign to attract foreign investors into the region and avoid what she described as negativism that could scare foreign capital.

Okonjo-Iweala

Speaking on the African Growth Outlook, she observed that international media appeared to be biased against Africa, which made them dwell only on negative news about Africa, pleading that the media in the region must act differently.

The Minister said she was recently at an event in the United Kingdom where she was persuading young Africans to demonstrate faith on the continent and invest back home, but noted that one of them confronted her with headlines from across 10 African countries, which were all negative stories.

According to her, the young man queried on how he can be convinced to invest in such a region.

Her words:   “African media must avoid what the international media are doing which I call ‘race to the bottom.’

“Everything they write about Africa is often negative. Yes, I agree that we need to look at the wrong things, but we should also look at the positive things.

“There are other regions of the world that even have more problems than us, but their media do not dissuade people from going there or investing there.”