Africa requires at least 1 billion U.S. dollars in order to carry out a geological survey to map its mineral wealth, a World Bank official said.World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Director Marcelo Giugale said in Nairobi on Saturday that the funds will be used to give an exact figure of the continent’s hydro carbon and gas reserves.“Currently only 10 percent of African mineral wealth is known, so 1 billion dollars is required in order to map out the remaining wealth in the 54 states,” Giugale said during a Round Table panel discussion on the sidelines of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Board of Governors.The meeting brought together finance ministers from member states of ACBF. “What is most interesting is the speed at which Africa is making discoveries of new oil and gas deposits,” he said.Giugale said that Mozambique and Tanzania are poised to be one of the key gas producing hubs in the world.“The continent should strive to use the new assets to improve the welfare of its citizens as well as other key macro economic indicators,” he said.According to the World Bank, the prices of Africa’s key export commodities including oil will remain steady at least till the end of 2015.“Our projections indicate that not even the EuroZone crisis will have downward impact on the price and so the countries must manage the windfall prudently,” he said.International Monetary Fund (IMF) Institute Division Chief Marc Quinty said that while in 1975 there were only four African oil producers, by the end of 2015 the figure will rise to 20.“However in the 1970s, African oil producers invested their funds in big projects with very low yields, so this time around the new oil producers should learn from their peers and avoid mistakes,” he said.According to IMF, income from natural resources in Africa is at least 3 times the amount of overseas aid received by the continent.
