AfDB president calls for debt relief for African countries

The President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina has called for debt relief for African countries as the continent suffers from the coronavirus pandemic:


Adesina who spoke in an interview on CNN’s first Move with Julia Chatterley said “Africa is not looking for a free pass. We’re just looking for a way in which Africa’s fiscal space gets dealt with.”
The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) economic outlook warns that without more aid 39 million Africans are at risk of falling into extreme poverty this year.


Discussing the worrying figure, he said “The GDP of Africa went down by $175 billion. Last year, we had 30 million people went into extreme poverty. This year if that trend continues, 39 million people going into extreme poverty, hunger and all of that.”
Adesina cautioned that the economic outlook was not all bad news, but that any positives rely on access to vaccinations.


Speaking further, he said “We project that Africa will grow back. We project 3.4 per cent grow back this year, but all of that is conditional on two things, one is access to vaccines, secondly the issue of debt.”
He continued, “I think that’s important to improve access of Africa to vaccines. We need to have vaccine solidarity, COVAX is doing a great job but the amounts are still minuscule as far as we are concerned.”
Adesina also stressed the need for global cooperation to end the pandemic, insisting that “If we deal with this pandemic in one part of the world, and we don’t deal with other parts of the world, we’re all going back to square one.”

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