ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, April 16/APO Group: The crisis in the Middle East is impacting global economies, with growth in African countries is forecast to decline by up to 0.2 percent. This is according to a joint policy document, “Impacts of the Conflict in the Middle East on African Economies,” unveiled on Tuesday, 15 April 2026, in Washington, D.C., by the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management at AfDB, Kevin Urama, presented the report on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He emphasized that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had significant consequences for sectors such as transport and trade.
The report discusses the main impact of Middle Eastern conflicts on African economies, including the surging prices of hydrocarbons, food products, and fertilizers. They also cause disruptions to global trade, logistics, and supply chains, and make capital and foreign exchange markets volatile.
“Eighty percent of the oil imported into Africa comes from this region, as well as 50 percent of refined petroleum,” said Executive Secretary of the ECA Claver Gatete. As a result of these conflicts, 31 African countries were already experiencing currency depreciation, Gatete underlined.
The report recommends, in particular, a strategic inflation management to ensure short-term price stability expectations. It cautions oil-exporting countries to adopt strict fiscal discipline by managing windfall revenues prudently, while strengthening debt monitoring, and using energy reserves strategically.
However, the report has also cautioned governments to avoid broad-based subsidies that could worsen long-term fiscal deficits, and to diversify sources of energy, inputs, and food supplies.
It also recommends that African governments strengthen regional and intra-African trade in oil and fertilizer markets to enhance resilience; and ensure smooth inter-institutional coordination to harmonize strategic monetary and fiscal policies.
At the same time, the report calls upon development partners, multilateral banks, and development finance institutions to provide emergency support to African countries through crisis response measures and technical assistance.
It also recommends that the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) be speedily operationalised while strengthening large-scale domestic capital mobilisation. The report also encourages Africa to diversify its energy mix by accelerating investments in renewable energy and the gas sector.
The document also urges stakeholders in Africa’s financial ecosystem to speed up the implementation of the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), for which AfDB has recently concluded continent-wide consultations. Those consultations led to the “Abidjan Consensus” on 9 April, 2026, in the Ivorian commercial capital. They are aimed at speeding up reforms towards mobilising African financial resources at scale to boost development financing across the continent.
For the Senior Vice President of AfDB, Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbagde, “there is a need for global coordination, as no country or institution can face these shocks alone. In addition, a rapid response is essential, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and people must be placed at the center of interventions.”
“The shocks affect us deeply, and we have no choice but to be resilient—and African countries have the means to respond,” emphasized Ahunna Ezioknwa, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. “In Africa, we need to win the fight for energy independence… We must invest in domestic solutions and encourage young people to engage in innovation, digital technology, and artificial intelligence,” she added.
