What started as a minor infection in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has turned into one of the most devastating viruses ever to hit the world. Having killed over 36 million people around the world, it was declared a pandemic on 11th March 2020. Despite the havoc it has wrecked on the global frontier, COVID 19 has seemed to have fewer effects in Africa as a whole. The percentage of lives lost to this virus in Africa is one of the least around the globe, despite being one of the least affected continents, Africa has had its share of the COVID 19 menace. Several aspects of the African economy have been completely shut down.

(Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash) The harsh effects of this virus on the African economy stems from the fact there is Inadequate number of testing kits and isolations centers, there's no denying the fact that most African countries lack the appropriate testing kits and proper isolation centers for detection and prevention of the virus. This has majorly increased the rate of infection and death among the African countries. This has resulted in immense negative impacts on the ever-vibrant continent.

Tourism in Africa

(Photo by Martin Bekerman on Unsplash)

First and foremost, and perhaps the harshest hit part of the economies in the African continent is the shutdown of the tourism sector. Since the virus is transferred through human contact, during the peak of the virus every country closed its border to foreigners, and hence movement from one country to another was cut off. This resulted in the shutting down of the tourist attractions and the tourism sector. In Ghana and Nigeria, tourism contributes roughly to about 40 percent of the countries revenue per year. So all the revenue the countries could have accrued from tourism in 2020 has been cut half or even completely lost, this thereby decreases the country's total revenue income at the end of the year and thereby reduces the per capita income at the end of the year.

Unemployment

The COVID 19 has reared the ugly head of the canker in every nation's economy, Unemployment. By the first three months of the year, 30% of the South African country became unemployed. That amounts to 7 million people. Unemployment brings about the situation whereby active people who are ready and willing to

work are denied jobs. This happens mostly because companies can no longer afford to (property of bing images)

pay the wages of these workers. This has become profoundly serious to the extent that Pandemic unemployment assistance aids and several unemployment aids have been set up to reduce the effects of the virus. Due to unemployment, able-bodied people can no longer work to bring in revenue and pay taxes that can generate income. That could be used to engage in economic activities that will boost the economy. Unemployment as an effect of the coronavirus has not only affected the economy in Africa but has increased the surge of crime. This is because people have no work to do to maintain themselves, so they resort to crime as a means of survival,

Shocks in supply and demand cycles

In 2019, Africa’s GDP increase at 3.6% was ‘even’ inadequate to speed up financial and social growth and decrease poverty. Growth per capita used to be around 0.7% and job introduction had no longer saved pace with the want to furnish possibilities to the 29 million younger human beings coming into working age every year. Since 2000, Africa’s GDP boom has mostly been pushed by using home demand (69% of the total). Africa’s labor productiveness as a share of the US stage stagnated between 2000 and 2018, and the Africa-to-Asia labor productiveness ratio has diminished from 67% in 2000 to 50% nowadays (AUC/OECD, 2019[3]). Global markets account for 88% of Africa’s exports, ordinarily in oil, mineral assets, and agricultural commodities. At the onset of the COVID 19 crisis, potentialities differed throughout economies. Some have been exhibiting excessive growth-rates, in extra of 7.5% (Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia), however, Africa’s biggest economies had slowed down. In Nigeria (GDP boom of 2.3%), the non-oil area has been sluggish, in Angola (-0.3%) the oil area remained weak, whilst in South Africa (0.9%) low funding sentiment weighed on financial activity. Due to the shocking surge in demand followed by a deep sink or up-rise in supply has affected the economy because there is no way of predicting a surge or downfall of a good or product. Thereby companies may provide a high supply of a good or service and end up running at loss due to shock changes in the demand and supply cycles.

Trade

As if the issue of shocks in the supply and demand cycle is not enough, just as painfully expected COVID 19 has hit trade in African economies extremely hard. The first five months of the virus’s hit were recorded as one of the worst trade periods for Africa because they relied on export commodities whose prices have crashed badly on the world stage. According to the World Bank report, because of the pandemic, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa has decreased by 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1% and -5.1% in 2020. This is the first time this region has experienced such a recession in 25 years. This will inevitably affect Africa’s participation in trade and value chains as well as reduce foreign financing flows. This just but a few impacts of COVID 19 on the African economy. As if the issue of shocks in the supply and demand cycle is not enough, just as painfully expected COVID 19 has hit trade in African economies extremely hard. The first five months of the virus’s hit were recorded as one of the worst trade periods for Africa because they relied on export commodities whose prices have crashed badly on the world stage. According to the World Bank report, because of the pandemic, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa has decreased by 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1% and -5.1% in 2020. This is the first time this region has experienced such a recession in 25 years. This will inevitably affect Africa’s participation in trade and value chains as well as reduce foreign financing flows. This just but a few impacts of COVID 19 on the African economy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the harsh impacts of COVID 19 have negatively affected the African economy and some steps are been taken to hopefully recover from the impacts and prepare in case of any other surprise occurrence. Firstly, Governments of the most countries in Africa have decided to diversify the economy: the virus has shown the overdependence of the countries on traditional economic ventures such as tourism, trade, and production of primary products, and now other ventures are being looked into to diversify the economies of these countries. Also, Africa will need more favorable international trade agreements to support its growing but still fragile export sector. Just as Martin Luther King said, “If you can't fly then run if you can't run then walk if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” With new visions and ideas assisted with faith, Africa can hopefully recover from the effects of this destructive virus and bring back the dying economies to life.

(Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash).

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