Apr 17 , 2020


The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) has estimated that Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) could take the lives of over 300,000 Africans.


If the pandemic continues to impact the continent's struggling economies, whose growth is expected to slow down from 3.2pc to 1.8pc in a best case scenario, it could push close to 27 million people into extreme poverty, according to the report.


The new report, which was launched virtually on April 17, 2020, is dubbed COVID-19: Protecting African Lives & Economies. It emphasises that Africa’s fragile health systems could see additional costs being imposed on them because of the growing crisis that has resulted in over 16,000 infected Africans and the deaths of over 800 lives at the time of the launch of the report.


To protect and build toward the continent's shared prosperity, 100 billion dollars is needed urgently, according to Vera Songwe (PhD), UN under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary at the UN-ECA.



PUBLISHED ON Apr 17,2020 [ VOL 21 , NO 1042]


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