Africa’s GDP will decline by $ 173- 236 billion

development of Africa’s pharmaceutical industry to manufacture medicines and vaccines in Africa.

The African Development Bank is supporting the development of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area to create competitive industrial manufacturing capacity and wider trade and investment opportunities for the continent. The Bank provided $ 4.5 million to help create the secretariat for the free trade area.

To further support the free trade area, the African Development Bank is supporting the Africa Exchange Linkage Project, to integrate stock exchanges across Africa. This will create a capital market with capitalisation in excess of $ 1 trillion, representing 90 percent of Africa’s total equity market. This will increase liquidity and enable seamless trading platforms across the continent.

We must re- think infrastructure and for a “Digital Africa”. As economies recover, the world will become more digital. People, businesses, financial institutions and governments have to rapidly adjust to this “new normal”.

The role of technology, especially digital technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and Internet of Things, will further revolutionise financial inclusion, delivering services, climate information, insurance, and health delivery, especially new models of telemedicine for better access and affordable care.

Therefore, Africa must further accelerate the development of digital infrastructure.

Going forward, we must re- think global health systems and partnerships. In an interconnected world, with so much fluidity, securing health requires that we rethink and reconfigure institutions. We should now be strengthening the regional and national health institutions. For nations and the regions must lead efforts, now, and in the future. That’s why the African Development Bank provided $ 27 million to the Africa Center for Disease Control to take the leadership in tackling the pandemic.

The pandemic is a shock to the world. Yet, working together we will overcome challenges arising from it. We will arise, we will reset and we will rebuild.

This is a Keynote Speech delivered by Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, at the Virtual 2020 International Forum on African Leadership last Friday