Several African presidents have lamented that pledges of financial support and debt relief fall well short of what the continent needs as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic.
They lamented that developed economies have channeled trillions of dollars into health initiatives and economic stimulus at home. But the presidents – from Kenya, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Niger – said they could not afford such measures in their own countries.
As a result, the African presidents have called for a $100 billion stimulus package from wealthy nations, forgiveness of bilateral debt, and a suspension of private debt service.
“More must be done. There’s been selfishness on the part of industrialized nations for decades” Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, a former senior official at the International Monetary Fund, said.
While Africa, with a limited capacity to test, has recorded just a fraction of the world’s coronavirus cases, it has been hit hard by the economic fallout from global trade disruptions, falling oil and commodities prices, and the lockdowns deployed to fight the disease’s spread.
“We’re not in a position to protect companies, to preserve jobs. There’s an injustice that is again being exposed by COVID-19,” Senegal’s President Macky Sall said during a virtual roundtable organized by the New York Forum Institute think-tank.
Last month, the Group of 20 wealthy economies backed an International Monetary Fund, IMF and World Bank call for a suspension of bilateral debt service for the world’s poorest countries.
Not all African countries qualify for the initiative, however, and some that do have not requested relief fearing it could impact future access to capital markets. Lenders, meanwhile, have shown little appetite for broad relief on Africa’s private debt.
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, which is eschewing the G20 initiative, said the world had a duty to give Africa the fiscal space to take care of its people.
“This is not a handout. This is support based on a crisis that was not created on the African continent,” he said.
