Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.
Africa needs help, a lot of help, the African Consultative Group said in a statement released on Saturday, warning that while the continent was still slowly recovering from the coronavirus economic turmoil, the war in Ukraine made things even worse, pushing food prices through the roof and exacerbating inflationary pressures from North to South and East to West.
“Our discussions on Africa’s challenges and prospects for recovery have been very fruitful. Today the green shoots of the recovery that started in 2021 are threatened by the war in Ukraine at a time when the war on COVID-19 is still not over,” the African Consultative Group said in a statement at the conclusion of the Group’s meeting in Washington D.C.
The joint statement was signed by Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Ms. Nadia Fettah, Chair of the African Caucus, and Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), co-chaired the African Consultative Group meeting on Thursday, April 21, 2022.
The African Consultative Group comprises the IMF Fund Governors of a subset of 12 African countries belonging to the African Caucus (African finance ministers and central bank governors) and Fund management. It was formed in 2007 to enhance the IMF’s policy dialogue with the African Caucus. The Group meets at the time of the Spring Meetings, while Fund Management meets with the full membership of the African Caucus at the time of the Annual Meetings.