The Comorian President, Azali Assouman, is attending the summit on the financing of the African economies most affected by COVID-19 on May 18, 2021 in Paris. While the pandemic is responsible for the decline in African GDP by 1.9% in 2020, the Comoros will post economic growth of 0.2% in 2020 against an initial projection of 4.5% according to the Central Bank of the Comoros. For the archipelago, quick and immediate solutions are needed to stay on the path to emergence.
Announced last April, the summit on the financing of African economies opens this Tuesday, May 18 in Paris. Around the discussion tables, African and G20 heads of state, as well as representatives of international organizations. At the heart of the discussions, economic stimulus and financing solutions for countries severely affected by the pandemic, including the Comoros.
According to the French Development Agency (AFD), the Comoros, like other countries such as the Seychelles and the Gambia, have been more severely affected by the health crisis. Indeed, the archipelago, which was just recovering from the passage of Cyclone Kenneth in April 2019, saw its island vulnerability be severely tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. The slowdown in economic activity has not been without consequences. The tourism, hotel and restaurant sectors have been particularly affected due to internal movement restrictions and border closures. According to a study of the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED), companies have lost more than 90% of their workforce, with a disproportionate impact on women and vulnerable groups. The most affected sectors remain catering, hotels, and travel agencies, which have lost 80% of their turnover according to the same study.
However, President Azali has undertaken ambitious reforms by providing his country with the Comoros Emerging Plan 2020 – 2030 (PCE) and the Interim Development Plan 2020 – 2024 (PDI), two reference strategic documents for national development planning, responding to thus to the desire for the emergence of the country.
“COLOSSAL” FINANCING NEEDS
“Africa’s economic activity has been less affected than other regions of the world, such as Latin America, but it still recorded a GDP decline of 1.9% in 2020 on average”, informs Cécile Valadier, economist at the French Development Agency in an interview published on the institution’s website before specifying that “This is the first time that the continent has experienced a recession for at least 30 years. ”
The health crisis has created 34 million “new poor” in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $ 2 a day, according to World Bank estimates. For the expert, this summit on the financing of African economies will be “an opportunity to assess the financing needs and to see how they can be met”, but also to “focus the efforts of donors on a strong and common response. »By means of a common and concerted framework for the treatment of debt for countries in difficulty, but also the mobilization of internal resources. A real challenge for the Comoros, which displayed a tax pressure rate below 9.7% in 2018, thus ranking among the African countries with the lowest rates in this area.
