During a meeting via videoconference with the AU Covid-19 task force, the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou (pictured), spoke about the debt moratorium granted to African countries in the pandemic context. According to him, this measure is far from sufficient to help the continent respond to the consequences of the pandemic efficiently.

“The scale of the economic crisis looming over the continent requires financial support that goes beyond a simple moratorium. I think a moratorium is insufficient […] even a debt cancellation would not be enough, especially with the inequality such a choice will generate among the beneficiary countries,” he said.

According to Mahamadou Issoufou, who is also the President of ECOWAS, African countries “need fresh financial resources [...] not only to face the pandemic but also to revive the economy through the implementation of structuring projects.”

A few months ago, the G20 countries decided to suspend for one year the repayment of the debt of the poorest countries to help them cope with the covid-19 pandemic. With an estimated debt of more than $365 billion held largely by private creditors and multilateral institutions, African countries had called for debt cancellation at a time when a recession is looming over the continent. According to the World Bank, growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall sharply from +2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1% and -5.1% in 2020, the first recession in the region in more than 25 years.

For Mahamadou Issoufou, rich countries must agree to put in place a real Marshall Plan for Africa and to increase their commitments to official development assistance. “This is an opportunity for the international community to achieve the goal of 0.7% of GDP to be dedicated to official development assistance,” he said, recalling the need for African countries to also mobilize more domestic resources to avoid an increase in unemployment and poverty, particularly in West Africa.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou