UN General Assembly
1989

I submit that both the premise and the practice of international co-operation for development would be most severely tested in Africa in the 1990s, as medium-term prospects for the continent appear less bright than in other regions. Sustained international support for the economies of African countries is most urgent if we are to resume growth and development. In this regard, Nigeria welcomes, as part of the solution to the problem, the recommendation of the Independent Group on Financial Flows to Developing Countries, the Schmidt Commission, that major surplus countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), should establish a 31 billion Endowment Fund to be administered by the African Development Bank (ADB) to provide debt relief measures and further increase official development assistance to the region. The international community - particularly the industrialized nations among us - must utilize the opportunity afforded by the special session of the General Assembly devoted to international economic co-operation in April 1990, to give fresh impetus to development co-operation.