Come 2014, Nigeria will be hosting the 7th joint AU/ECA Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, Planning and Economic Development. This was made known by ECA on Tuesday and the conference is meant to place between 27th March and 1st April 2014.

This conference is meant to help in the advancement of Africa’s industrial development by the key people involve making necessary commitment and acting on the decisions they have taken.

The theme for the conference is “Industrialization for Sustainable and Inclusive Development in Africa”. This area that will be treated at the conference is very essential to Africa’s economy in general. Alternative economic source of industrialization aside the extractive and commodity producing sector will be looked into at the conference.

The statement from ECA goes thus, “In turn, the capital intensive nature of the extractive sector and the limited inter sectoral linkages between the primary sector and other sectors of the economy, create limited opportunities for value chain development, value addition and job creation.

“Moreover, the primary sectors are characterised by low productivity and low wages which render employees vulnerable to poverty,” the statement said.

The conference is been organised by ECA, the Africa Union Commission (AUC)and the Nigerian Government. Governors of Central Banks and key leaders in private sector will be in attendance at the conference.

Next year conference will build on this year’s Joint conference that was held in Abidjan. This year’s conference was centered on the need to address the challenges at national, regional, continental and international levels.