MEDIATRACNET
The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group sis to invest “heavily” in the domestic manufacturing of vaccines and the healthcare system in African, the President of the Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has said.
Adesina spoke at the closing of the 2021 Annual Meetings of the Bank on Friday.
The AfDB President noted that only 51 percent of public health facilities in Afeica have basic water and sanitation facilities , while 31 percent of healthcare facilities had electricity.
Also, he underlined the fact that Africa still imported 60 to 70 percent of its pharmaceutical drugs.
“The lives of 1.2 billion people in Africa are at risk id this practice is allowed to continue.
“We must give hope to the poor, and the vulnerable, by ensuring that every African, regardless of their income level, gets access to quality healthcare, as well as health insurance and social protection,” Adesina said.
He further proposed an African stability mechanism, to act as a firewall against external shocks, and pledged the Bank’s commitment to strengthen support to African countries.
The proposal included that AfDB would act as a conduit for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights, which it would then on-lend to African countries at very insignificant rates.
The support of the Bank, he said, would be towards tackling the economic and health impacts of the pandemic in Africa.
Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kenneth Ofori-Atta, urged the AfDB to take a leading role in the continent’s recovery.
“Our Bank, distinct in its role, has to be at the centre of Africa’s build-back, through targeted support to tackle Africa’s development challenges and lay the foundation to respond to future challenges,” Ofori-Atta said.
Meanwhile, green growth was also high on the agenda.
In a panel discussion, a British Member of Parliament and President of the Conference of the Parties (COP) 26, Alok Sharma, said it was vital that developed countries delivered on a $100billion commitment, to tackling climate change.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA), Patrick Verkooijen, lauded the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP), a joint initiative between the GCA and AfDB to mobilise $25 billion to accelerate climate change adaptation across Africa.
The 2021 Annual Meetings of the AfDB had the 56th Annual Meetings of the Bank Group, and the 47th meeting of the Governors of the African Development Fund, the bank’s concessional lending arm.
The meetings included closed-door discussions between finance ministers and central bank governors of the regional and non-regional member countries of the bank, and knowledge events on healthcare, debt sustainability and climate change.
In attendance were IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva; World Trade Organisation Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is President and Chairperson of the Global Green Growth Institute, was also among the panelists.
The bank’s 81-member countries met virtually for a second successive year.
Ghana would host the next Annual Meetings in 2022. (NAN)
