Adesina, AfDB President

By Temitope Ponle

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said that sub-Saharan Africa would need 425 billion dollars by 2030 to support its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President of AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said this at the opening of the 2021 Annual Meetings of the Bank held virtually on Wednesday.

Adesina also said that low-income sub-Saharan African countries alone would need 245 billion dollars by 2030.

The AfDB president recalled that Africa was home to six of the fastest growing economies in the world but had since fallen at a loss due to the pandemic.

“Africa’s cumulative GDP losses are estimated between 145 billion dollars and 190 billion dollars. Africa will need a lot of resources to support its recovery.

“Low-income sub-Saharan African countries alone will need 245 billion dollars by 2030, while all of sub-Saharan Africa will need 425 billion dollars by 2030.

“Africa needs strong actions to support its recovery,” he said.

He, however, highlighted AfDB’s support to African countries.

“The bank launched a three-billion-dollar social impact bond on global capital markets, which was at the time the largest ever U.S. denominated social bond in world history.

“We announced a 10-billion-dollar Crisis Response Facility. We provided 28 million dollars to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It is still challenging, no doubt, but Africa is starting to move forward, again,” he added.

Adesina also reiterated that Africa should not beg for vaccines but should be producing them.

He said AfDB was committed to supporting Africa’s production of vaccines as part of the vaccines plan of the African Union.

He reiterated the plan of the bank to commit three billion dollars to the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the continent.

“We will leverage our resources. We will not work alone. We will work in partnership with others. Together, I am confident we will get vaccines to all in Africa,” he said.

The 2021 Annual Meeting of the AfDB Group is holding from June 23 to June 25, with the theme: “Building Resilient Economies in Post COVID-19 Africa.”

This will be the 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the bank and the 47th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund, the concessional arm of the bank group.