The United Nation Economic Commission for Africa has revealed that 55 million Africans were pushed into extreme poverty due to decline in economic activity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The continent has been hit the hardest economically as a result of the global financial crisis that emanated from the pandemic. 

These economic challenges have been worsened by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that has led to the rise in food and energy costs.  

The UN also underscored that the growing geopolitical and economic uncertainties are reducing business confidence, and higher borrowing costs are weakening investment prospects.

The West African subregion is particularly affected by the rise in fuel prices of 2022, given that all countries in the region are net-importers except for Nigeria, the continent’s leading producer of fuel. 

And the region also has a high dependence on food and fertiliser imports from Russia. 

Benin, Senegal, Mali and Guinea are the countries particularly dependent on wheat imports from Russia, which is involved in a disastrous war in Ukraine.

Speaking at a seminar in Banjul on the economic situation in the ECOWAS region, Bakary Dosso, senior economic affairs officer at UNECA, said that if the current situation continues countries in the region will not achieve the UN’s key SDG’s goals targets on economic growth of 7.0% and the elimination of extreme poverty in health and education.

“In 2022, the economic growth was forecasted at 4.2 percent amid inflation pressure on all the countries of the community,” Mr Dosso said.

He added that the economic growth contracted by 0.6 percent in 2022 in West Africa and in 2021 growth resumed slowly at 4.3 percent at a performance of well below 7.6 percent which negatively impact of the preceding year.

Reporting by Mariam Marong