African Development Bank’s Kaberuka Calls for Global Stimulus

By Tian Huang and Margaret Brennan

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The African Development Bank, the Tunis-based lender, is pushing for global economic stimulus to help pull African countries out of the financial crisis, bank president Donald Kaberuka said.

“What we are saying to governments around the world is let us work together,” Kaberuka said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The global financial crisis triggered South Africa’s first recession in 17 years while demand for commodities slumped in countries such as Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, and Zambia, the continent’s largest copper producer.

A “synchronized global approach that doesn’t leave out any part of the world” and investing in African infrastructure would be a boon for poor countries in the region, Kaberuka said.