Letter to the president

I wish to present an extract of my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Economics thesis recommendations to establish African International Fund (AIFund). The dire need or reasonableness for establishing the AIFund is inevitable to rehabilitate and revamp the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) – devastated economies of the 54 African nations to complement the developmental efforts of African Development Bank (ADB) and to enable Africa to cushion the effects of shutdowns of its economies due to the dreaded pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Johns Hopkins University records show countries of the world have over 12 million confirmed cases of the killer disease as at July 9, 2020, while as at July 1, 2020, BBC News records 404,796 total cases with 10,147 deaths in Africa.

My recommendation for the establishment of the AIF is similar to the rationale behind the establishment of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in 1944; rehabilitation and reconstruction of the war-ravaged countries of post-World War II era.

The purpose of the fund shall be to stimulate macroeconomic stability, sustainable shared inclusive growth and balanced development in Africa in the post-COVID era. The objective of the Fund shall be to foster African monetary cooperation in order to actualise African economic integration and fortify the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

It will foster stability of exchange rates among member currencies and their mutual convertibility, rectify imbalances in the balances of payments of African States, strengthen capacity building in the implementation of debt management policies in Africa and serve as a financial unit of African Union (AU) or a sister-bank to African Development Bank (ADB) which shall specifically and undoubtedly serve as a stimulant fund to recover African states’ economies from the global recession.

Also, it will fund and improve education, health, agricultural and industrial production among other sectors of the economy in Africa in the post-COVID era.

It will be appropriate for Nigeria to take a lead role as a pioneer member of AIFund. This will automatically guarantee to secure for Nigeria choice of location for the fund headquarters and establish regional offices in the West, Central, Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa. The post-COVID-19 era bank needs to be located in an Anglophone country relatively necessary as ADB is located in Cote d’Ivoire, a Francophone country.

Rasheed Olajide Alao, Ondo.

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