The International Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa has been increased from 3 trillion naira to 6 trillion naira in the last two years, an official with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has said.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria reports reaching here on Tuesday, Patrick Osakwe, Chief Financing Development Officer of UNECA, said this during a presentation at the ad-hoc Expert Group Meeting on Financing for Development and Fiscal Policy on Monday.

He said that the increase is to ensure that Africa sustains its momentum of growth, which kicked off at the turn of the millennium.

According to him, Africa entered the new millennium with an improvement in economic performance as well as renewed optimism regarding development prospects for the region.

Osakwe said that the only way to sustain the growth is to mobilize more resources to make public and private investments necessary to accelerate growth and engender development.

"There is a growing concern that the current global financial crisis would have negative effects on development finance in the region," he said.

"Trade credit is drying up in several countries and all indications are that the slowdown in economic activity in industrialized countries would affect foreign direct investment flows, exports, remittances, and tourism," Osakwe added.

The UN official said that any long run strategy to increase resources available for development in Africa must be anchored on boosting domestic resource mobilization.

Source:Xinhua