The President of the Republic of France brings together dozens of African leaders this week to discuss reviving growthThe company is betting on the involvement of international partners and on the creation of a package of "massive support" for the economies.

"The summit aims to deepen two lines of aid: the creation of a massive support package for the African continent to overcome the shock of the pandemic and, on the other hand, to lay the foundations for a new cycle of growth that will benefit the African peoples, but which can also be a growth engine for the entire world economy," an Elysée source said in statements to journalists launching the summit.

The Summit on Financing African Economies takes place next Tuesday, and follows the release of a call for support from African leaders on April 15, 2020 in the Financial Times and Jeune Afrique, affected not only by the impact of the pandemic on the health of citizens, but also on the economy, which has seen already existing weaknesses exacerbated by the restrictive measures needed to prevent the spread of the virus.

During the conversation with journalists, the French President's African advisors recalled the help already given last year by France to Africa, amounting to 150 million euros in grants and another billion in loans, but argued that the African continent will only be able to overcome the pandemic with more international support, which also explains the extensive list of international entities that will be present, physically or virtually, in Paris.

In addition to dozens of Presidents of African nations, the leaders of the International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank, World Trade Organization, World Bank, United Nations, European Union, and African Union, among others, will attend Tuesday's sessions.

Although the continent has recorded a relatively low death toll, around 130,000 deaths, the equivalent of deaths in the United Kingdom, for example, officials at the Elysée, the official residence of the President of the Republic of France, stress above all the effect on the economy and consequently on the lives of the people, whose `per capita` income is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 or 2024.

"We are very afraid of the risk of divergence between African economies, and between them and the developed economies," said one of the officials, in line with what the IMF executive director had already stated when she said she feared that one of the consequences of the pandemic, besides the "great confinement", would be "a great divergence" between Africa and the rest of the world in terms of relaunching economic growth.

The continent has already received large sums of money to fight the pandemic and revive growth, but the financing needs are significantly greater than the aid received.

"The IMF estimates that African countries have financing needs equivalent to $450 billion by 2025, hence the idea of massively increasing emergency aid to Africa," which has suffered the same as other countries but does not have the financial instruments that more developed countries have made available to their economies.

The European Central Bank, for example, has provided 750 billion euros in stimulus to the region's economy, while the United States has approved a $2 trillion aid package, the largest ever, which contrasts with the weak financial capacity of African countries.

The IMF will issue $650 billion, in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which will then be distributed among members on a quota basis, giving $34 billion for Africa, of which $23 billion is reserved for sub-Saharan Africa.

"These monies will arrive in September for African countries, but our feeling is that they are not enough, and so one of the points that President Macron wants to address is the possibility of reallocating the DES allocated to the most advanced countries in order to channel them to those most in need," the same source added.

The debate, he concluded, will not be finished on Tuesday, but the idea is "to think together how we can reallocate our ESRs through various methods that can benefit low-income countries," he added, pointing out that France, for example, is entitled to $25 billion (20.6 billion euros) given its quota in the Fund.

In the framing conversation for Tuesday's summit, Macron's advisers also stressed that the joining of efforts by African partners must also be complemented by `homework' in these countries. "In the draft declaration that we are preparing, it is clear that there is also the condition that an effort is needed to improve the business climate in Africa so that people are more willing to invest, particularly in terms of infrastructure," said one of the advisers, pointing out that the problem is not always the lack of money available, but the existence of bankable (bankable) and credible projects where investors can bet.