COVID 19: AfDB To Invest $3bn In Health Sector

By Fola James

Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector is set to experience a boom following the decision by the African Development Bank, AfDB to invest a whopping $3 billion in the next decade.

The President of the bank, Akinwumi Adesina disclosed this on Tuesday at a virtual Finance in Common Spring Meeting convened in collaboration with the Association of African Development Finance Institutions, AADFI and the International Development Finance Club IDFC.

At the meeting tagged “Africa’s Green and Resilient Recovery: A Common Objective.” the AfDB president also disclosed that the continental financial institution will support the Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC) with $28 million to strengthen its capacity to tackle the issue of vaccines, particularly for the Covid 19.

He said “The bank is also currently working with partners on how to best support the financing of manufacturing of vaccines on the continent.”

The AfDB president further who projected a gradual recovery of African economies from the COVID-19 pandemic, with an expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3.4 percent in 2021, said “that recovery is expected to be across the board for oil-exporting countries, tourism-dependent economies, commodity-dependent economies and for non-resource dependent economies.But all these depend on access to vaccines and tackling the issue of Africa’s debt.”

He noted that tackling the issue of Africa’s debt must be of top priority, which he described as critical for the overall financial market stability in the short and medium term.

But “without a resolution of Africa’s $700 billion external debt,” Adesina said “Africa’s economic recovery will be like running up a steep hill with a backpack full of sand.”

Adesina said the issuance of special drawing rights, SDR by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), if well used, would support the recovery process in Africa and address the debt challenge.

He said SDR  should be used to support African development banks with additional resources to support countries to build back better, greener and with climate and environmental resilience, while creating job opportunities for the youths.

“It is clear that if this is not done, when the debt payments become due from 2023/2024 with bunching of payments, many countries will not be able to meet their obligations, which could trigger massive and widespread credit downgrades across Africa,” Adesina said.