Abidjan - African finance ministers, the African Private Sector Task Force and the African Union Special Envoy on COVID-19 met on Monday, at the initiative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to try to find solutions, to ensure that African economies continue to enjoy continued market access and meet their private sector debt servicing obligations.

The meeting, according to a press release, aimed to find new means of financing to provide additional resources to countries to mitigate the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and to improve the profile and the terms of Africa's commercial debt obligations so that Africa can better free up funds to address the health crisis.

ECA Executive Secretary, Ms. Vera Songwe, underscored that “African countries are committed to meeting all their obligations to commercial creditors in a timely manner and want to maintain access to international debt securities markets during the crisis period. reconstruction”.

Finance Ministers agreed on the importance of securing Eurobond coupon payments in order to maintain post-pandemic access to international debt securities markets for development finance and to have an ongoing coordinated dialogue with creditors, says the document.

“We have expressed our desire to support African countries in the face of the liquidity pressures that have arisen due to the crisis, and by ensuring that they remain current on their Eurobonds, we believe that funding opportunities will arise. materialize soon” The Chief Investment Officer at Aberdeen Asset Management, Mr. Kevin Daly, on behalf of the group of creditors.

He noted that the group of creditors offers innovative financing solutions, such as special purpose bonds that target social development goals.

"These solutions are proving attractive to investors who are increasingly focused on issues of social development goals and on instruments partially guaranteed by multilateral institutions that can help ease liquidity pressures," said said Mr. Daly.

The meeting agreed to continue discussions with a view to finding quick, pragmatic and effective solutions on Africa's commercial debt to manage the COVID-19 crisis and put Africa back on the path to growth through policies and actions.