The Covid-19 pandemic is poised to have widespread impacts on African economies, with experts estimating that the continent could see an average 1 to 3 percent drop in GDP.

“There is nothing like it that we’ve seen in this lifetime,” Vice President of Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Khaled Sherif said ahead of the 2020 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank.

He describes how the continent has been hit by several “shocks,” from the fall in oil prices, declines in tourism revenues and domestic incomes due to border closures and confinement measures. West African economies, for example, also suffer from global price drops for raw agricultural productions such as cacao and coffee.

Through its Covid-19 Response Facility, VP Sherif says that the African Development Bank is assisting countries(link is external) “under a crisis like we’ve never seen before.”

For more on the “Road to the 2020 Annual Meetings: A conversation with VP Sherif,” click here(link is external).