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THE World Bank has urged African countries to beef up their food and agriculture spending to achieve future resilience while restoring macro-economic stability so as to cushion the vulnerable households.
In a latest statement, the Bretton Wood institution said elevated food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were causing hardships with severe consequences in one of the world’s most food-insecure regions.
World Bank chief, Mr Andrew Dabalen, said as of July 2022, a total of 29 of 33 countries in SSA with available information had inflation rates over five percent while 17 countries had double-digit inflation.
“These trends compromise poverty reduction efforts that were already set back by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“What is most worrisome is the impact of high food prices on people struggling to feed their families, threatening long-term human development.
“This calls for urgent action from policy makers to restore macro-economic stability and support the poorest households while reorienting their food and agriculture spending to achieve future resilience.”
The World Bank said hunger has sharply increased in SSA in recent years driven by economic shocks, violence and conflict, and extreme weather.
It added that more than one in five people in Africa suffer from hunger and an estimated 140 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022, up from 120 million people in 2021, according to the Global Report on Food Crises 2022 Mid-Year Update.
Recent official figures indicate that as of last week the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) grain stocks stood at 550 464 metric tons comprising 475 966 metric tons of maize and 74 498 metric tons of traditional grains.
Government has said the country has sufficient grain to last until the next harvest in 2023 at a time when the country is preparing for the 2022-23 farming season.
The World Bank further said that the global headwinds are slowing Africa’s economic growth as countries continue to contend with rising inflation, hindering progress on poverty reduction.
“The risk of stagflation comes at a time when high interest rates and debt are forcing African governments to make difficult choices as they try to protect people’s jobs, purchasing power and development gains,” it said.
Already, Zimbabwe has put in place robust measures to stem inflation with monetary authorities resolving to maintain the bank policy rate and medium-term lending rate at current levels of 200 percent and 100 percent, respectively.
Authorities said the rate would be maintained until durable stability, measured by a sustained decline in month-on-month inflation to desired levels of less than five percent, is attained.
According to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse, a biannual analysis of the near-term regional macro-economic outlook, economic growth in SSA is set to decelerate from 4.1 percent in 2021 to 3.3 percent in 2022, a downward revision of 0.3 percentage points since April’s Pulse forecast, mainly as a result of a slowdown in global growth, including flagging demand from China for commodities produced in Africa.
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