Africa still needs US$110bn to deal with economic impact of Covid-19 – IMF

Countries across Africa still face financing needs amounting to over US$110 billion in 2020 alone, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

The IMF has also doubled access to its emergency lending facilities. Access limits to the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) have been doubled temporarily, from 50 percent to 100 percent of the country’s IMF quota per year, allowing the IMF to meet the expected global financing demand of about US$100 billion.

As of mid-June, 29 sub-Saharan African countries have received IMF disbursements totaling about US$10.1 billion through these emergency facilities or augmentation of access under the existing program arrangements

“Despite this, more international support is urgently required for sub-Saharan Africa to overcome the crisis and return to sustainable growth.

“Countries across Africa still face financing needs amounting to over US$110 billion in 2020 alone, with US$44 billion yet to be financed. International and regional cooperation can help facilitate a coordinated relaxation of movement restrictions.

“Upholding uniform health standards and virus testing and tracking methods should pave the way for reopening international travel and tourism.

“It will be important to ensure that trade restrictions on essential medical supplies are removed, information on the pandemic is shared, and technical support to countries with limited health capacity, including through the World Health Organization, is scaled up.

“When a vaccine, drug, or treatment for COVID-19 are eventually developed, they should be made available to the poor countries as international public good, as it has been pledged by China,” the Bretton Woods institution said.