World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, on his first foreign trip in his new post, kicked off on Sunday a mission in Nigeria by showing concern for poor nomads in the bush and visiting a power project for small businesses. "On his arrival in the country, he immediately performed his first official function when he visited some Fulani nomads in Daruga," on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja, local World Bank spokesman Obadiah Tohomdet told AFP.
The purpose of the visit to the nomads was "to see the people at the grassroots, feel and understand their living, their problems and needs," he said.
The nomads, who pasture their flock in the bush, did not let the golden opportunity pass them by, requesting from the World Bank chief drugs for their cattle, which often fall victim to deadly tsetse flies.
Wolfowitz granted their request and directed his officials in Nigeria to immediately look into their needs, Tohomdet said.
Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defence secretary whose neoconservative leanings have many anti-poverty activists worried, began his maiden African tour the day after he stopped in London at the meeting of Group of Eight finance ministers, where a major debt cancellation agreement was concluded.
"His first assignment of visiting the poor cattle rearers near Abuja city is an indication that under his tenure at the World Bank, the poor in Africa and the developing world can enjoy a new lease of life," an African member in Wolfowitz's entourage said.
Accompanied by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, he later inspected a pilot power project co-financed by the bank and the Nigerian government in Abuja.
He expressed his happiness over the implementation of the project, the Community Reorientation of Electricity Sector Toolkit (CREST), aimed at making the distribution of electricity efficient in the Nigerian capital.
Power supply is a major disincentive to economic, industrial and investment growth in Africa's most populated nation. The country of about 130 million is struggling to maintain between 3,000 and 4,000 megawatts of electricity, a situation which increases the poverty level of most Nigerians.
"I got a very serious impression of how big the challenge is in Nigeria to develop an effective electricity power system. I think this pilot project is very promising and perhaps could be developed on a national basis," Wolfowitz said after the inspection.
The first phase of the CREST project, which started last year, is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year at a cost of 12 million dollars grant from the World Bank, the managing director of the state-run power agency, Power Holding Agency (formerly NEPA), Joseph Makoju, said.
"I got a sense from this historic visit of how much has to be fixed (in the power sector). I am optimistic that this kind of system would bring a lot of changes to people," Wolfowitz said.
He has indicated that private-sector investment is key to transforming Africa.
On Sunday he was to hold a closed door meeting with the finance minister, some businessmen and other senior officials to review the country's economic program.
Wolfowitz is scheduled to meet on Monday with President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as visit health centers and farmers and officials before wrapping up his visit to Nigeria on Tuesday.
He is scheduled to travel on to Burkina Faso, another west African state, and then to Rwanda and South Africa.
He has said his intentions are "to hear from African leaders and local communities how the continent can make greater strides in reducing the poverty that afflicts hundreds of millions of its people".
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