Ivory Coast
Several African leaders on Thursday attended the International Development Association (IDA) for Africa summit in Abidjan to discuss ways to support economic recovery on the continent after the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many countries, already seeing little growth, have been forced to roll back restrictions due to rising virus cases, affecting revenues and jobs.
The leaders of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda were expected to attend.
An official of the IDA, a World Bank fund that provides loans and grants to poor and developing countries spoke about the need to ramp up vaccinations in Africa.
"We are far from the target to vaccinate 40% of the population by the end of this year and 60% by the middle of next year," said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank's director of operations.
On Wednesday, Africa's coronavirus case tally crossed the six million mark with several countries battling waves driven by variants.
The continent has administered just 57 million vaccines and only 1.2% of its population of 1.3 billion is fully vaccinated, according to the African Union's Centres for Disease Control (CDC).
IDA is one of the largest sources of funding for fighting extreme poverty in the world’s lowest-income countries.
11:08
Can Africa’s soil sustain food security? [Business Africa]
01:13
Nigeria seeking $2.25 billion in World Bank loans
01:11
World Bank suspends funding for Tanzania tourism project
02:24
Zimbabweans forced to use US dollar in absence of new currency ZiG
00:59
Least developed countries getting poorer as gap with richer nations widens - Report
01:14
Poll shows Egypt's March inflation figures expected to edge upwards