African Development Bank to make available $10 billion to fight against COVID-19
Yesterday the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) announced the creation of COVID-19 Response Facility.
This Response Facility is to assist members states fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The fund consist of 10 billion dollars to be loaned to the member state countries.
Nigeria alone has about 250 report COVID-19 cases and six deaths and is seeking to obtain one billion dollars alone from the $10 billion.
According to the AfDB, the creation of this facility is the latest measure take to manage the current crisis.
It is providing up to $10 billion to governments and the private sector to undertake the war.
According to the AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, the package considers the fiscal challenges plaguing the African countries.
“Africa is facing enormous fiscal challenges to respond to the coronavirus pandemic effectively.
The African Development Bank Group is deploying its full weight of emergency response support to assist Africa at this critical time. We must protect lives.
This facility will help African countries to fast-track their efforts to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19,” he said.
The fund is to be partitioned into three categories.
$5.5 billion will be allocated for sovereign operations in African Development Bank countries,and $3.1 billion allocated to sovereign and regional operations for countries under the African Development Fund, and an additional $1.35 billion will be devoted to private sector operations.
However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office for Africa, the continent has reported 10,000 COVID-19 cases, with 500 deaths.
Kiffasblog
