African leaders have been called on to learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic experience and build strong health defense systems to buffer healthcare challenges in the continent in future.
The pandemic ravaged lives of millions of people globally, exposing the weak status of health institutions in developing countries like in Africa, hence the need for development of robust healthcare system in the continent.
President of the African Development Bank (AFDB) Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina made this call while speaking to African heads of state at the 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Speaking on the topic, “Mobilizing Financing for Africa’s Accelerated Economic Recovery, Development and Integration”, Adesina said the pandemic which affected the world in an unprecedented manner, should be a great lesson for Africa.
He noted that Africa witnessed a decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.1 per cent in 2020, its lowest in twenty years. “Africa’s GDP fell by $165 billion. Over 30 million jobs were lost and over 26 million people fell into extreme poverty,” Adesina lamented.
While emphasising that investing in health system is investing in national security, the AFDB president said building the health system should be based on three priorities which include: “First, building Africa’s quality healthcare infrastructure. Second, building Africa’s pharmaceutical industry and Third, building Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.”
He noted that Africa needs between $600 million and $1.3 billion to meet its goal of attaining 60 per cent vaccine production by 2040, adding that AFDB plans to invest $3 billion to support pharmaceutical and vaccines manufacturing capacity for Africa.
Adesina called for the establishment of “African Financial Stability Mechanism” to protect the continent from future economic shocks, noting that Africa is the only region that does not have such facility as Europe, Latin America, Asia, Middle East have and had more protection against financial shocks during the pandemic.
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He pointed out that to address the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and support economic recovery, Africa will need some $484 billion over the next 3 years; to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, the continent will need $414 – $784 billion per year; will need $7-$15 billion a year to deal with climate change; and will also need between $68 – $108 billion per year to fix infrastructure financing gap.
Adesina noted that the topic of discussion was very neccessary and timely given that the AFDB has been given the mandate by a decision of the African Union to lead the mobilization of resources for the continent to achieve its Agenda 2063.
To achieve the 2063 agenda, he said the bank has in the past six years provided $39 billion financing to the continent in support of its High5 priorities which include: “light up and power Africa; feed Africa; integrate Africa; industrialize Africa; and improve the quality of life of the people of Africa.” These he said were the accelerators in achieving the agenda.
On food security, the AfDB president highlighted efforts so far made by the bank to fund some intervention projects such as, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAA), that has provided drought tolerant technologies to 12 million farmers across Africa; supporting the creation of special agro-industrial processing zones in 18 countries to help drive the transformation of agriculture as a major source of wealth and jobs; collaboration with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the African Union Commission to launch the Facility for African Food Security and Nutrition at the UN Food Systems Summit, which is a financing facility that aims to raise $1 billion to provide climate resilient and nutrition-rich technologies for 40 million farmers, produce 100 million metric tons of food, and feed 200 million people, thereby reducing food insecurity in the continent by 80 per cent.
He also hinted about the bank’s heavy Investment in renewable energy. “This includes the world’s largest concentrated solar power system in Morocco and the Lake Turkana energy project, the largest windfarm in Africa. Together with Africa50, we have co-financed the 3,000 MW Ben Ban solar power project in Egypt. The Bank is also implementing a $20 billion Desert-to-Power initiative to develop 10,000 MW of solar power for the Sahelian zone of Africa, in order to provide electricity for 250 million people.”
Adesina also said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers the continent incredible opportunities to accelerate Africa’s development and disclosed that the AFDB has invested $40 billion in infrastructure, connecting nations, businesses and people to help actualize that goal.
He further stressed the need to boost financial support for the businesses of youths, and disclosed that African Development Bank is working with countries to establish “Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks”, as financial institutions run by the youth to achieve that.
On women entrepreneurship, he also said the bank has a scheme called “Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA)” which is mobilizing $5 billion for women businesses.
“AFAWA is now working at scale. Over $425 million was disbursed in 2021 to banks for lending to women businesses. This year, we will disburse $500 million for women businesses,” he added.
Concluding his speech, Adesina thanked the heads of state for their strong support to AFDB in helping to ensure that it actualizes its goals. He also urged them to continuously display their visionary leadership to collectively achieve a new Africa with remarkable progress in all fronts.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
