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Africa needs $1.2tn’ to recover from covid-19 losses –IMF

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Nigeria’s oil and gas export to fall by $26.5bn –IMF

The continent of Africa needs the sum of $1.2tn (£920bn) over the next three years to recover from the effect of economic damage as well as the health costs caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was revealed in a statement on Saturday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Kristalina Georgieva who said that the world “must do more to support Africa to [recover]… from this crisis”.

Africa has had fewer Covid infections and deaths than most other continents but the World Bank says 43 million more Africans are at risk of extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic.

“The economic impact is reversing the trend in recent years of strong growth in Africa, as jobs have been lost and family incomes have been reduced by 12%,” Ms Georgieva told a virtual IMF meeting.

READ ALSO: $3.4 BILLION LOAN: IMF tells Nigeria to keep receipts of spending

“Some countries are confronting high debt burdens forcing them to choose between debt service and additional social and health spending,” the IMF chief said.

“To help soften the blow, many African governments have introduced mitigation policies which have cost 2.5% of GDP, she added.

The IMF has given African countries about $26bn to cushion the impact but even with the help of private lenders and other countries’ assistance there is still a huge shortfall in funding.

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