Niger says receives $3 billion in donor pledges

NIAMEY - Niger said on Saturday it had received pledges for more than $3 billion in aid at donors' meeting in Brussels this week to finance a five year plan to reduce one of the world's highest poverty rates.

Government spokesman Ibou Gueye told state radio that President Mamadou Tandja's administration would seek additional funds in bilateral talks over the coming months, following the Oct 25-26 meeting in the Belgian capital.

"Our partners have announced more than 3 billion dollars, or more than 1,500 billion CFA francs, to reduce the poverty rate in Niger," he told the radio station.

Niger hopes to reduce its poverty rate to 42 percent by 2015, from 62 percent at present.

The 2008-2012 Strategy for Accelerated Development and Poverty Reduction (SDA/RP) envisaged an economic growth rate of 7 percent a year but requires 7,600 billion CFA in financing.

Landlocked Niger, which has more than 13 million inhabitants, came bottom last year on the United Nations' development index of 177 countries, which measured wealth, life expectancy and education levels.

Poverty in Niger is aggravated by one of the highest population growth rates in the world of 3.3 percent a year.