Brooking – Africa, like other regions, is reeling from the pandemic’s economic and social consequences. The global economic downturn is undercutting every sector of Africa’s economy. Growth is expected to turn negative for the first time in almost 50 years, threatening the hard-won development gains of past decades. An additional 43 million Africans might be pushed into poverty.
It is in these exceptional circumstances that, in August 2020, I was unanimously re-elected to a second term as president of the African Development Bank. Today, more than ever, I feel the burden of responsibility that comes with this honor. It will be my duty to ensure that the Bank rises to the challenge, standing in solidarity with African countries as they respond to the rapidly evolving crisis.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Africa will need $1.2 trillion over the next three years to recover from the epidemic.
The good news is that African countries have already taken a bold range of actions, from ambitious public health interventions to flatten the curve, to the expansion of social safety nets, to monetary and fiscal interventions on an unprecedented scale.
The Bank responded swiftly in April 2020 by launching a $10 billion COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility, which provides liquidity through crisis response budget support in order to help African governments implement their plans to control and mitigate the virus and its impacts. The month before, the Bank also launched a record-breaking $3 billion “Fight COVID-19” social bond on the global market—the largest-ever U.S. dollar-denominated social bond.
Akinwumi A. Adesina
