South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the chairperson of the African Union, said on Friday that African countries needed a two-year debt standstill on all bilateral and multilateral debt due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Reuters.
The novel coronavirus has infected more than 3.9 million people now infected worldwide. The coronavirus was first reported in China last December.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) supported initiative that aims to suspend bilateral debt service for some of the world’s poorest countries is expected to free up billions of dollars to fight Covid-19.
The World Bank and IMF have said that official creditors have mobilized up to $57bn (about R1.09-trillion) in emergency support in 2020 for Africa. But as the coronavirus pandemic is exposing cracks in illequipped health systems in various African countries, and they believe the continent still faces a funding gap of about $44bn and will need more support in 2021.
“While the World Bank and the IMF have supported a debt standstill for nine months, we believe that … we will need a debt standstill for two years,” Ramaphosa said during a conference call with heads of state from neighboring countries.
Notably, Last month the G20 agreed to a debt service standstill on bilateral loans for a group of 76 low-income countries.
Ramaphosa urged heads of state to continue to cooperate as Africa reels through the global health crisis.
“I am certain that, working together, we will be able to better protect the health, the well-being and the lives of our people,” he said, adding “We will be able not only to overcome this grave health emergency but also place our countries on a path of recovery and reconstruction.”
South Africa has reported the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa at 8,232, out of which 161 people have died, while 3 153 have recovered.
