Africa’s poverty crisis may worsen in 2030, World Bank, IMF warn

Unless urgent rescue plans are employed, nine of every 10 African nations would be living in abject poverty, the World Bank has warned.

Paradoxically, the same year is the global financial institution’s target for ending extreme poverty worldwide.

The development, that is already giving World Bank President, David Malpass, concerns was given by the global lender and its sister agency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington at separate press briefings by heads of the two Breton Woods institutions at the ongoing 2019 Springs Meetings where solutions to global growth challenges are being sought with growth forecast already readjusted backwards globally.

Malpass and IMF’s Christine Lagarde both said curbing corruption through public expenditure and transparency and accountability in local resource mobilisation rather than attraction of more debts, which they both believe constitute the greatest headwinds, was key to averting the doomsday.

For Malpass, the deceleration was seen in both advanced and developing economies, and it coincided with three other warning signs: waning structural reforms in major economies; financial stress in some large emerging markets; and elevated policy uncertainty worldwide.