ECA in West Africa engages with key partners on financing the continent's recovery

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its Sub-Regional Office for West Africa (SRO-WA/ECA), held on Tuesday, virtually, a high-level dialogue with key partners on financing issues for countries in the sub-region.

The meeting was held against the backdrop of Africa’s annual SDGs expenditures are expected to rise by US$154 billion (from US$200 billion annually) due to the pandemic and by an additional US$285 billion for the next five years to ensure adequate response to COVID-19 (IMF, 2020).

It is part of a series of dialogues initiated by the SRO-WA/CEA as a prelude to the Fifty-fourth Session of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM2022), scheduled for March 2022 under the theme: “Financing Africa’s recovery: breaking new ground”.

The objective of this high-level dialogue was to stimulate reflections on the theme of CoM 2022 "Financing Africa's recovery: breaking new ground", focusing on the specific financing needs of West African countries, and innovative strategies to the latter.

Speaking on behalf of Mrs. Hanan Morsy, Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECA, the Director of SRO-WA/ECA, Mrs. Ngone Diop, stated that " In West Africa the fiscal deficit has reached 3 to 9.5% of GDP and even more than 15% of GDP in Ghana.

Five countries out of the 15 record a debt ratio of more than 40% of GDP with even more than 100% in Cabo Verde in 2020”.

"The West African region and the Sahel face specific development challenges along with important financing needs that require specific and innovative financing modalities," explained Ms. Ngone Diop.

This high-level dialogue on the theme of CoM2022 was held in the presence of the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Special Coordinator for Development in the Sahel, Mr. Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECA, Mrs. Hanan Morsy, the Director of the SRO-WA/ECA, Mrs. Ngone Diop, the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Niger, Mrs. Liliane Alapini, the Director General of the African Solidarity Fund, Mr. Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo, the Director General of Planning at the Ministry of Economy, Planning and International Cooperation of Senegal, Mr. Mouhamadou Bamba Diop, Mrs. Reine Mbang Essobmadje, Co-founder of the Digital Coalition, CEO of Evolving Consulting and Vice-President of GICAM and Mrs. Hana Wetters of the International Centre for Private Enterprise (CIPE). The meeting was also attended by approximately 200 representatives of the United Nations System in West Africa, the Private Sector, the Civil Society, Academia, the Media and the members of the ECA Young Economist Network.

The high-level dialogue highlighted the challenges facing West African countries and made concrete proposals to address their financing needs.

Key issues such as improving the business climate in terms of infrastructure, taxation, business formalization, governance, investment in security, expansion of the tax base, recapitalization of African development banks, including commercial banks and multilateral development banks were also discussed.