The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated that a continued lack of access to vaccines will see Africa’s projected growth at 3.4% compared to the rest of the world at 6%.

The IMF disclosed this in its Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2021, which was published on Thursday.

What the IMF said

• Despite turning out better than expected, growth in 2020 is estimated to have been the worst on record at –1.9 %, leading to a sharp spike in poverty.
• In 2021, the region’s economy is expected to resume expansion at 3.4%, weaker than the 6% for the rest of the world, amid a continued lack of access to vaccines and limited policy space to support the crisis response and recovery.
• Macroeconomic policies will in many countries entail some difficult choices. Saving lives remains the first priority, which will require access to affordable vaccines, ensuring that the logistical and administrative prerequisites of vaccination rollouts are in place, targeted containment efforts, and added spending to strengthen local health systems.

The IMF urged that African leaders needed to create more fiscal space and implement transformative reforms to unlock economic growth. These include mobilizing domestic revenue, strengthening social protection, promoting digitalization, and improving transparency and governance.

The body added that the need for reforms is to reduce debt and find a sustainable footing which would be a catalyst for longer-term growth and provide opportunities for the region’s new job seekers.

On growth projections

• IMF forecasts that Nigeria is expected to grow by 2.5% in 2021 and 2.3% in 2022.
• South Africa is expected to grow by 3.1% in 2021 and 2.0% in 2022.
• Kenya is expected to have higher growth at 7.6% in 2021 and 5.7% in 2022.
• Meanwhile, Ghana is forecasted to grow by 4.6% in 2021 and 6.1% in 2022.

In case you missed it

Nairametrics reported earlier this month that the International Monetary Fund had lifted its global growth outlook to 6% in 2021 (0.5% point upgrade) and 4.4% in 2022 (0.2 percentage point upgrade), after an estimated historic contraction of -3.3% in 2020, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it will launch a N100 billion Strategic Health Impact Fund for Transformation (SHIFT) to help Nigeria’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

This was disclosed by Mr Lamido Yuguda, Director-General of SEC, at the 2021 post-Capital Market Committee conference in Abuja on Thursday.

The SEC boss revealed that the fund’s focus would be on healthcare assets in Nigeria, and reiterated the SEC’s commitment to improving Nigeria’s capital markets.

What the SEC DG said

“The pandemic and its attendant lockdown had negative effect on the Nigerian economy in the year 2020 leading to a recession within the year. Despite this challenge, the NSE All-Share Index was adjudged by Bloomberg as the best performing index in 2020.

In spite of the turbulence experienced with the outbreak of the pandemic, the Nigerian capital market stood resilient. To this end, our next phase of support in the fight against COVID-19 will be the establishment of the Strategic Health Impact Fund for Transformation.

May I use this medium to reiterate our commitment to advance the development and integrity of the Nigerian capital market.” 

In case you missed it

Nairametrics reported last week that the SEC said that Fintech trading platforms including Chaka, Trove, Bamboo which allowed Nigerians to invest and trade in stocks listed on the Nigerian and foreign stock exchanges, had been declared illegal, citing provisions of Sections 67-70 of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA), 2007 and Rules 414 & 415 of the SEC Rules and Regulations, which state that only foreign securities listed on any Exchange registered in Nigeria may be issued, sold or offered for sale or subscription to the Nigerian public.