eBusiness Weekly
Martin Kadzere
A slower vaccine roll-out and mounting debts have been cited as huge challenges that stand in the way of Africa’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, delegates at the African Development Bank annual meetings heard.
Participants at the opening ceremony on Wednesday issued forceful calls for action to secure Covid-19 vaccines and tackle mounting debt. This comes a few days after AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina, implored African leaders to focus on vaccine production and access for the continent as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to take lives and hurt economies and livelihoods. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), many poor countries are relying on the global vaccine sharing scheme Covax have run out of doses to continue vaccinating. The UN and the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) are urging countries with surplus supplies to donate them to parts of Africa.
WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said out of 1,3 billion people in Africa, 31 percent have received at least a single dose while seven million have been fully vaccinated. Covid-19 provided a pressing backdrop to the AfDB meetings, which were held virtually for the second consecutive year.
Noting the meetings’ theme, Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said: “Today’s annual meetings have an appropriate focus, ‘building resilient economies in post Covid-19 Africa’, which is an unavoidable imperative if our continent is to recover from the effects of the pandemic.”
President Akufo-Addo recounted the pandemic’s toll in human lives, as well as in economic damage — massive loss of jobs and revenue, economic contraction, and rising deficits. He urged continued concerted action, saying the surest path towards stability is to abandon half-hearted partnerships and develop new approaches that support self-sustaining economic growth and development.
He hailed the bank’s rapid response to the pandemic and called for more support for the continent’s development institution. “We need to resource the African Development Bank and position it as the catalyst for our economic advancement,” he said.
Other participants in the annual meetings also said the bank would be critical to build back more resilient economies in the post-pandemic period. The chairman of the bank’s Board of Governors, Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, referred to an African financial stability mechanism — recently proposed by the African Development Bank president — modelled on a European one, and an African liquidity and sustainability mechanism.
“The African stability mechanism will be a permanent firewall for Africa to provide instant emergency access to financial assistance to countries in difficulty,” he said.
Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat commended the African Development Bank for its support to the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Today, more than ever before, Africa needs to build up its health infrastructure and the manufacture of vaccines,” Faki said.
Dr Adesina said the bank was now taking steps to tackle the most pressing issues including mounting debts.
“We have launched a Debt Action Plan and a new Strategy for Economic Governance in Africa. Both will support countries to tackle debt, and to embark on bolder economic governance reforms to forestall a debt crisis,” he said.
Dr Adesina assured the bank’s commitment to domestic manufacture of medicines across Africa, saying it will support Africa to produce vaccines, as part of the Vaccines Plan of the African Union.
