With financial, health and climate shocks threatening to reverse two decades of development progress in Africa, experts have called for urgent concessionary financing to help the continent build resilience and boost economic growth.
A mix of shocks including food and fuel impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change impacts, conflict, and tighter global financial conditions have increased Africa’s development financing gap and debt vulnerability, experts concurred during a one-day virtual workshop on Catalysing Access to the IMF Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), organized by AfriCatalyst and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
ECA Director, Macroeconomics and Governance Division, Adam Elhiraika said that in the past six decades, every global recession has led to a rise in global government debt and that many African countries had increased their public debt. A bulk of the public debt was incurred between 2020 and 2021 when countries sought to combat the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result, many countries were struggling with high debt and in servicing it which was impeding poverty reduction and hindering their recovery from shocks.