The International Monetary Fund (IMF) channelled close to $70 billion in financial support to Sub-Saharan African countries at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director of the Fund’s African Department, Abebe Aemro Selassie, has disclosed.

Speaking in an interview with Channel One TV on Wednesday, January 21, Mr Selassie said the scale of IMF assistance since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 far exceeded the institution’s historical levels of support to the region.

He explained that the unprecedented financing reflected the severity of the economic shock facing African economies at the time, as governments struggled with collapsing revenues, rising health expenditures and shrinking access to international capital markets.

“I would argue that we stepped forward for Africa like never before in our history,” Mr Selassie said.

“Since March 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, the IMF has provided about $70 billion in financing to Sub-Saharan Africa — several times more than what we used to provide in the past.”

He noted that the IMF’s intervention was particularly crucial at a time when other sources of external financing, including donor inflows and private capital, were drying up, leaving many countries exposed to severe fiscal and balance-of-payments pressures.

According to Mr Selassie, the Fund’s support helped to soften the economic impact of the crisis across the region.

“Our countries were going through some of the most difficult periods ever, and we tried to cushion the blow of these global shocks. I believe the IMF rose to the challenge and played its role effectively,” he added.