The Sudanese billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, has solicited for Africans to be allowed to access the International Monetary Fund, IMF, reserves as palliatives to the effect of the Coronavirus disease. According to him, the Brenton woods Funds Group needs to extend debt relief offered to African nations. He said that the consensus on how to tackle the dreaded disease appears not to exist.
Nigeria is already neck-deep in debts, and the revenue base is constantly eroded by debt servicing. A greater percentage of national annual earning is used to service debts, and there are indications that the debt profile may increase as there are currently talks of borrowing more.
But in a virtual interview with Bloomberg, Ibrahim noted there is goodwill from donor agencies.
“There’s a lot of goodwill but where is the beef?” Ibrahim said. “We are here waiting for the IMF to deploy this very powerful tool they have, which is the Special Drawing Rights. That needs to be done.”
Last April, the US blocked a $500 billion meant for the black continent. The US is the greatest contributor to the Fund reserve.
Both the US and IMF are worried that Africa, led by Nigeria, already was reeling in debt before COVID 19, and are still approaching the fund and other donor agencies for loans.
“The G-20 offered some relief but that’s for public debt and that’s really only for one year; it needs to be extended for one or two years,” he said. “We need more support to the private sector because it is under extreme pressure and we need the private sector because that is what generates jobs and that’s important to protect jobs”, Ibrahim said.
“The global order, unfortunately, is not functioning well,” he said. “Instead of coming together as the global community to face a global pandemic, we see sniping between the greater powers and it’s really unhelpful. We cannot defeat this virus in Europe if we don’t defeat it in Africa.”
