Africa Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina
Arusha. Africa’s recovery from the economic impact of Covid-19 will be delayed than anticipated earlier.
The pandemic has negatively impacted on the debt situation for the continent,affecting sub Saharan economies deeply.
“Without a resolution of Africa’s $700 billion external debt, the continent’s economic recovery will be delayed,” said a release from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
It said the market financial stability in the continent remains to be affected in the short and medium term.
AfDB’s $10 billion Covid-19 Response Facility, though, has been instrumental in mitigating macro-economic shocks for African countries.
The bank also announced a $3 billion social bond to support its Covid-19 funding efforts.
However, the continental bank insists that the pandemic has led to unprecedented global health and economic crisis, affecting Africa’s economies.
The global pandemic led to a recession of 2.1 percent, the largest contraction for the sub-Saharan region for more than 50 years.
These emerged during a virtual meeting organized by the bank last week to discuss joint actions that can boost a strong recovery for Africa.
“Think of the impact that this debt is having: in 2019, Africa paid $221 billion for debt service,” said AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina.
According to him, that was equivalent to 44 percent of the total government revenue of $501 billion in the same year.
A global coalition of public development banks emphasized the urgency of immediate resources for Africa’s recovery post-Covid 19.
They committed to deepening cooperation to boost investment opportunities across the continent.
Dr Adesina said the outcomes of the meeting will be conveyed to a May 18th Summit on Financing African Economies in Paris.
That summit is being convened by French President Emmanuel Macron.
It is expected that there will be further pledges and announcements of financial and technical assistance to support the commitments made by the African public development banks.
Late last year the AfDB chief said that Africa’s recovery from the economic impacts of the pandemic would depend on debt relief.
Ha also announced that recovery would be boosted by supply of a bulky amount of vaccines for the continent’s population.
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