The seminar that brought together the Director General of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, and the President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, to several African ministers aimed to identify options to expand financing to the African region in the next five years, share experiences with the policies implemented by the various countries in response to the pandemic and its economic and social consequences, announced this Monday the Ministry of Finance (MINFIN).
At the seminar on "Mobilization with Africa," stakeholders "converged on the need to mobilize extraordinary international resources to address the post-pandemic situation" and called for an extension of the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) until 2021, MINFIN highlighted in a note published on its website.
Vera Daves referred to the measures, especially in terms of debt sustainability, to deal with the shock of the pandemic on the economy and health systems.
"We would like to see the extension of existing relief initiatives, for which we thank all multilateral and bilateral partners, and emphasize our commitment to make our economies and health systems more resilient to shocks, maintain debt sustainability, improve the business environment and create the conditions for foreign direct investment and economic diversification that promotes growth," said the ruler, quoted by MINFIN.
The seminar on "Mobilization with Africa", held on a virtual basis, served as an antechamber to the annual meetings of international financial institutions that take place between Monday, October 12 and Saturday, October 17.
At the meeting, Kristalina Georgieva, quoted in the MINFIN note, stressed the need for African states to intensify economic reforms aimed at improving the quality of spending in key areas such as education, health, digitalization and infrastructure, indicating that without reforms, "foreign aid will not be effective or sufficient.
David Malpass informed, for his part, that the World Bank Board of Directors is about to approve, in the next few days, a $12 billion program for the purchase of vaccines for the prevention of covid-19.
The president of the World Bank Group also announced the launch, next week, of the first edition of the report on the International State of Debt, "a document that reflects the gravity of the situation, particularly among African countries.
On the same occasion, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced the holding in May 2021, in Paris, of a High Level International Conference for the financing of Africa, with the aim of mobilizing resources for the financing of large public investment projects, with the involvement of the private sector.
The event brought together political and governmental entities from several African countries, especially ministers of finance and economy and central bank governors, with emphasis on Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Tunisia, as well as senior officials from international multilateral organizations.
Also present were UN Secretary General António Guterres, African Union Commission President Moussa Faki and UN Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary Vera Songwe.
This was the second edition of the event promoted by the African Department of the IMF.
