Press Release No. <a name="P16_75"></a>04/152

Mr. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will travel to Abuja, Nigeria (August 2-3); Libreville, Gabon (August 3-4); and Kampala, Uganda (August 5-6). The main purpose of the visit is to provide the opportunity for the Managing Director to listen first hand to a wide variety of leaders and civil society representatives on the challenges facing Africa and how best the Fund can support poverty reduction efforts on the continent.

Mr. de Rato will start his first visit to Africa, as the Managing Director of the IMF, in Nigeria, where he will hold a wide range of meetings with the leadership of the country, as well as representatives of the parliament, private sector, and civil society. In his meetings in Nigeria, Mr. de Rato will seek views on the challenges facing Nigeria, as well as Nigeria's perspective on Africa, as Nigeria assumes the presidency of the African Union.

After consultations in Nigeria, Mr. de Rato has been invited to attend a meeting with the heads of state of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in Libreville, Gabon. The Managing Director will also hold a series of bilateral meetings with the heads of state in the Central Africa region where he will continue to listen to the leadership of these countries, as well as representatives of the civil society, on the way forward for Central Africa, as the region strives to enhance growth prospects.

Mr. de Rato will then travel to Kampala, Uganda, where he will listen to the views of the leaders in the East Africa region on the successes, as well as the difficulties, in securing high quality growth and poverty reduction. These exchanges will also provide the Managing Director with reflections of countries in the region, including those countries that have achieved macroeconomic stabilization, on the role of the Fund in low-income countries.

Looking ahead, the Managing Director intends to return to Africa in early September to visit South Africa and to attend the African Union's Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Reduction in Africa, which is to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. During this visit, he will continue the dialogue on the challenges facing the global economy and, in particular, Africa.