Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Journalist

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called for “equitable” access to Covid-19 vaccines in Africa and debt relief to help the continent’s economies recover faster and better from the pandemic.

Following the coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected in China in December 2019, global economies have been negatively affected by the implementation of national lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus.

AfDB President Dr Akinwumi Adesina, speaking at a virtual meeting held Monday this week in his honor as African Out of the Year magazine of African leadership, warned that as long as the coronavirus was not controlled in any part of the world, no one is paying attention.

“AfDB President called for equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for Africans and said debt relief would help African economies recover faster and better from the pandemic,” the bank said in a statement issued after the meeting.

Dr Adesina was quoted expressing optimism about the recovery of African economies over the next two years despite the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel – it turns out it’s a very long tunnel. I am very convinced that African economies will rebound over the next two years, but the speed of the recovery will depend on ensuring that Africa receives enough vaccines for its people.

“The world must not hurt Africa on access to vaccines,” he said.

Dr Adesina added that significant debt relief would be essential to accelerate the recovery of African economies after the Covid-19 crisis.

“To recover faster, Africa will need significant debt relief from bilateral and official creditors,” he said. – @okazunga