The IMF Board, on April 9, approved 147 million (CAF88.2 million) to help address the coronavirus crisis in Gabon. The resource is a loan approved under the Rapid Financing Instrument initiated by the institution to help countries in need.

IMF explains that the amount to which each country is entitled under this facility depends on its balance of payments financing needs, its outstanding credits to the IMF and the way it has used Fund resources in the past, but above all on its ability to repay.

The new financing to Gabon is therefore not expected to be used to directly finance the economic victims of covid-19, such as small and medium-sized enterprises or households. It will rather enable the country to finance its imports at a time when export revenues are at risk and the need for imported goods is growing.

The IMF, like the World Bank, has taken the lead in advocating for significant support to be given to poor countries facing the consequences of covid-19.

International observers criticize these institutions for an approach in which African countries, in particular, have to take on more debt, which is the opposite of the rhetoric of international solidarity. The IMF says it has received 90 requests for such assistance, 60 of which came from poor countries.

Idriss Linge