President Uhuru Kenyatta has suggested a number of new approaches to funding Africa’s Covid-19 recovery efforts, stating that the private sector should be encouraged to play a larger role.
Along with private sector involvement, the President called for improved recovery packages from Africa’s development partners, debt swaps and restructuring, and faster access to alternative funding sources like the Green Climate Fund.
“Innovative financing solutions that crowd in the private sector. These would include the issuance of private sector-backed financial instruments such as green bonds, supporting the issuance of local currency instruments, structuring guarantees to lower financing costs; and, developing and deepening public-private partnership opportunities,” the President proposed.
“We need to move beyond traditional measures and implement truly transformational financing options that are commensurate with the enormity of the crisis,” he added.
President Kenyatta gave a virtual address Tuesday at State House in Nairobi to the summit on funding African economies, which was hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France and attended by many leaders, including President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is also the new African Union Chairperson.
At the same time, the Head of State stressed the importance of expanding access to Covid-19 vaccines in African countries.
“With regard to access to vaccines, we talk about economic recovery but there can’t be any recovery without access to vaccine and Africa is desperately lacking in vaccines,” President Kenyatta said.
He stated that Kenya will continue to open up its thriving economy to private sector involvement, claiming that the country’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) regime has been improved.
“We commit to augment our limited fiscal space by revitalizing Public Private Partnership (PPP). In Kenya, we have put measures in place to leverage on PPPs to provide greater operational efficiency and reduce pressure on fiscal space,” he said.
The President cited the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road, a public-private partnership project funded by French investors, as an example of the private sector’s vast financing capacity, and invited more investors to Kenya and the continent.
“Opportunities abound for private sector investments and Joint Ventures, in virtually all sectors. To close the infrastructure and development deficits. We welcome the private sector to invest in Africa,” he said.
President Kenyatta, on the other hand, praised ongoing initiatives by development partners to protect Africa from the negative effects of Covid-19, stating that Africa requires more money to combat the pandemic, resolve debt vulnerabilities, and address hunger, among other pressing needs.
“Kenya appreciates the extra-ordinary efforts from development partners to finance economic recovery and reduce debt vulnerability.
“Kenya welcomes commitments from bilateral and multilateral agencies to support emerging and low-income countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the President said, adding that despite its devastation, Covid-19 presents an opportunity for African economies to bounce back stronger.
The President also emphasized the importance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in sustaining African livelihoods, and praised the creation of the Alliance for Entrepreneurship in Africa (AEA) as a special tool for mobilizing funds for the sector.
“In Africa most livelihoods are supported by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which have not been spared by the impact of the pandemic.
“Kenya, therefore, welcomes the launch of the Alliance for Entrepreneurship in Africa to support mobilization of financial and technical resources for MSMEs,” the President said.
President Macron called for a shift in strategy in funding African growth by increasing Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to strengthen the continent’s ability to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and recover.
The French President also emphasized the importance of debt cancellation in order to provide African countries with the necessary liquidity to construct better post-Covid infrastructure.
“We should turn this emergency into an opportunity to boost Africa’s economic growth,” President Macron said.
President Tshisekedi, for one, stated that African leaders expect the international community, especially the G7 and G20, to take swift and bold action to accelerate Africa’s economic development.
