The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said security expenditures are rapidly displacing development expenditures in the ECOWAS sub-region because of increased levels of insecurity. Dr Adeshina, who spoke at the 56th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority Heads of State and Government, said he was already discussing with International Monetary Fund (IMF) on how they could come up with new financing instruments to address the exogenous security-related shocks.
He said while opportunities abound in the region, growth and future prosperity were under multiple threats because of a number of countries especially Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Nigeria now spend a high share of their public budgets on security expenditures. Read more