(3 minutes read)
· The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe recently met African Ministers in charge of finance and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, to discuss immediate economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic
· During the virtual meeting, which was convened by the ECA and IMF, the African ministers called for additional liquidity of US$500 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), better market access, more concessional resources and an extension in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI)
· Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, urged greater market access to the vulnerable countries in EU
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe recently met African Ministers in charge of finance and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, to discuss immediate economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the virtual meeting, which was convened by the ECA and IMF, the African ministers called for additional liquidity of US$500 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), better market access, more concessional resources and an extension in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). This, they maintained, was critically important due to the prolonged nature of the pandemic. Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning pointed out that the impact of the pandemic would be felt for the next 3-4 years. Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, urged greater market access to the vulnerable countries in EU. He also asked for sourcing essential goods like food articles and healthcare products at affordable rates from the EU.
ECA’s Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, stated that the issue of distribution and deplopment should receive active attention. The objective of the meeting was to seek IMF support in forging a way out of the crisis by transforming existing liquidity instruments and easing market access to alleviate the debt burden and provide much needed liquidity for the continent. Ms Songwe. Minister Vera of Angola emphasized the importance of country reforms and in particular good governance reforms.
