News & Analysis: Niger
“Afrobarometer’s nationally representative surveys in five West African countries (Benin, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) offer less optimistic findings: On average, only four in 10 people say they would be likely to try to get vaccinated, including just one in three Liberians and one in five Senegalese. Most say they don’t trust their government to ensure that the vaccines are safe.”
“Chinese banks have offered significant debt restructuring both before and during the coronavirus era acting within and outside of the G-20 arrangements.”
“The Speaker of the Niger House of Assembly, Bawa Wuse and the Clerk, Mohammed Kagara, have gone into isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the state Commissioner of Information and Strategy, confirmed the development to newsmen Sunday night in Minna.”
“A survey conducted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has shown that a predominant majority (79% average) of respondents in Africa would take a COVID-19 vaccine if it were deemed safe and effective.”
“According to the World Bank’s latest Economic and Poverty Update for Niger published, the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the economy and could trigger a recession if the many downside risks to economic activity materialize.”
“The need to protect the economy and vulnerable populations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic justifies larger fiscal deficits in 2020 and 2021. However, to safeguard Niger’s public finances, it will be important to guard against high deficits becoming entrenched, step up revenue collection, improve the quality of public spending, and ensure good management of forthcoming additional oil revenues.”
“The authorities’ COVID-19 response plan largely contained the pandemic and helped alleviate its socio-economic impact. Economic growth is projected to recover, but uncertainty remains high owing to the global economic outlook.”
“Under the 18th replenishment of IDA, which ended in June, the World Bank has more than doubled its support in fragile and conflict-affected situations over three years, from $10.2 billion to $23 billion. Thanks to this, over 38 million people have accessed essential health services, more than 15 million children have been immunized, and over 17 million people have benefitted from social safety net programs.”
“The challenges of displacement and extremism in sub-Saharan Africa are not novel, but the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating them and exposing operational weaknesses in response.”
“The World Health Organisation has warned that the coronavirus pandemic could overwhelm already strained public health systems in Africa. Despite considerable investments in the past five months, Africa’s healthcare infrastructure remains gravely inadequate. The average doctor to patient ratio of 1:5,000 is still far short of the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended proportion of 1:1,000.”
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