The remarks come ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank taking place in Marrakech this week
Africa is set to have a third member on the International Monetary Fund’s executive board to “expand the voice” of emerging markets and developing countries, its Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
The IMF chief made the remarks ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank taking place in Marrakech, Morocco this week from October 9-15 for only the second time in Africa after a previous meeting held in Kenya in fifty years ago.
According to the IMF website the executive Board is responsible for conducting the day-to-day business of the IMF and is composed of 24 directors, who are elected by member countries or by groups of countries. Georgieva chairs the board.
“The Fund with its new universal membership plays a vital role in bringing countries together,” Georgieva said in a video posted on Sunday on her official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“This means also expanding the voice of emerging markets and developing countries,” she said.
The IMF board usually meets several times each week to carry out its work largely on the basis of papers prepared by IMF management and staff, the IMF says on its website.
“I very much look forward to our members agreeing to have a third African chair on our executive board. From two to three. So the voice of Africa is heard loud and clear in our boardroom,” Georgieva said.
The meetings in Marrakech come at a time when the debt overhang continues to weigh heavily on Sub-Saharan African economies, with an IMF report citing that 21 countries are at high risk of external debt distress or in debt distress as of June 2023.
The Fund – which serves to stabilize the international monetary system and acts as a monitor of the world’s currencies – has said Africa faces a worse fallout from global shocks such as the war in Ukraine and climate change than any other region globally.
Sub Saharan Africa faces a “lost decade” of sluggish growth, the World Bank said in the October edition of its bi-annual publication ‘Africa Pulse’ authored by Andrew Dabalen and Cesar Calderon that it released last week.
The Bank, which works with developing countries to reduce poverty, forecast growth in Sub-Saharan Africa would slow to 2.5% in 2023 from 3.6% in 2022.
Source: Zawya
