DAKAR – International lenders agreed Monday to pump an extra US$15 billion at least into Africa over the next two to three years to help it get over the global economic downturn.
‘We plan to increase our commitment by at least 15 billion dollars in the next two to three years,’ lenders said in a joint statement issued in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
Signatories for the loan aid include the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, the European Investment Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the World Bank.
The ‘action plan’ was aimed at ‘supporting financial systems in the regions and private sector loans,’ the statement said.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the African Development Bank warned that after five years of robust growth Africa faced a crushing economic reversal that could set back democratic gains.
The OECD estimated Africa’s GDP would rise by only 2,8 per cent this year, less than half of the 5,7 per cent climb it made in 2008, before making a modest recovery to a 4,5 per cent increase in 2010.
‘In past years, African crises were essentially due to internal factors,’ such as poor governance, ‘but this time, it is essentially external, for the first time in 30 years,’ said African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka.
‘We are therefore asking for a global solution’ to confront this crisis, he told a press conference after the signing of the agreement.
-Nampa-AFP
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