The Chairperson of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed four persons tasked with mobilizing international support for Africa’s efforts at addressing economic challenges amid Covid-19.
President Ramaphosa of South Africa according to a statement named Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, Mr. Tidjane Thiam and Mr. Trevor Manuel as special envoys for this task.
The statement said the four envoys will mobilize support for “Africa’s efforts to address the economic challenges African countries will face as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.”
“The Special Envoys will be tasked with soliciting rapid and concrete support as pledged by the #G20, the European Union and other international financial institutions.”
Chairperson of the @_AfricanUnion, His Excellency President @CyrilRamaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, has appointed Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr Donald Kaberuka, Mr Tidjane Thiam & Mr Trevor Manuel as Special Envoys of the @_AfricanUnion #AfricaResponds #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/D2zPol0jHU
— AUChair2020 (@AUChair2020) April 12, 2020
President Ramaphosa said “In the light of the devastating socio-economic and political impact of the pandemic on African countries these institutions need to support African economies that are facing serious economic challenges with a comprehensive stimulus package for Africa.”
“The impact of the #coronavirus pandemic has been global in both scale & reach, and this necessitates coordinated international action to capacitate all countries to respond effectively, but most particularly developing countries that continue to shoulder a historical burden of poverty, inequality and underdevelopment,” Ramaphosa added.
Africa’s economic woes
Global auditing firm McKinsey & Company’s is already estimating that Africa would lose up to $200 billion in 2020 due to the current coronavirus pandemic.
A paper put together by experts at the auditing firm said the pandemic will led to a cut of 3 to 8 percentage points to Africa’s GDP growth.
Entitled; “Tackling COVID-19 in Africa” the auditing firm released its predictions this week to give an outlook of Africa’s economies amid the pandemic.
The auditing firm predicts that African economies could experience a loss of between $90 billion and $200 billion in 2020.
The African Union has also said that its latest study shows that about 20 million people are at risk of losing their jobs in Africa this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest move by the AU is considered an effort to ensure that the continent doesn’t go crashing economicall amid the pandemic.
Source: Africafeeds.com
