President of African Development Bank (AfDB) Donald Kaberuka said on Tuesday that the geometric growth in African countries' population had sustained the high level of poverty among families.

He stated this on the sidelines of a meeting in Abuja, adding that African countries had recorded a steady growth rate of an upward of 5.9 percent in their population, but such growth did not translate to a reduction of poverty on the continent.

"The economies are growing, but so is the population. In many countries, such as Rwanda, the population increases every day by three percent. If you have about six percent growth in the economy, half of it is eaten by the three percent growth in population," he was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria as saying.

"We must recognize that we started off from a very low level. We started from a position of deep poverty, and by the time we get to a level of growth, where we can actually impact on the real per capita income, it takes a long time," said Kaberuka, adding that many African countries had recorded phenomenal progress in reducing poverty.

"Within the ECOWAS region alone where Nigeria is the largest country, 60 percent of ECOWAS indigenes are in Nigeria, and if you do a comparison among the countries, you will discover that the situation yesterday is not the same today," he said.

"This has been a very vibrant region for the last 10 years, before the crisis. We have not resolved all the problems, but the region has been a much more stable region. It has been a growing region, and the regional integration has contributed to the trend," he added.

Kaberuka said Africa still has a long way to go in reducing poverty to a marginal level because of its low resource base. "The best way to fight poverty is to ensure a steady and sustained broad-based economic growth," he added.

The AfDB president said there was still inequality in international trade between countries and regions, noting that Africa was disadvantaged because of its export of primary commodities.

Source: Xinhua