The International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.4% of total sub-Saharan Africa growth in 2021 after a year 2020, marked by an unsurpassed recession of more than a quarter of a century of 1.9%. The IMF calls for increased efforts to enable Africa to vaccinate its population.
Vaccines are one of the prerequisites for a return to growth. As the head of the IMF’s Africa branch, Ethiopian Abebe Aemro Selassie, says “vaccine policy is also economic policy”. He deplores the fact that Africa is struggling to secure its vaccine revenues due to global competition.
The greatest risk is for Africa that new epidemic waves will occur that would make the recovery in growth uncertain. As 2021, sub-Saharan Africa’s economies recover by 3.4%, the IMF predicts. A point that will not erase the terrible effects of the 2020 crisis. Last year, 32 million Africans fell below the extreme poverty line. And per capita income will not return to 2019 levels in several years.
In addition, the African restart requires funding. And the continent “cannot sustain itself”, insists Abebe Aemro Selassie, who reminds that Africa will need $ 425 billion over the next five years. This therefore requires action from everyone, he insists: the private sector, public donors and international institutions.
Sustainable growth in Africa costs this price. But states, for their part, must step up their efforts for good governance and the establishment of social protection systems.
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