As 2022 is coming to an end, Sputnik recollects the most significant events of 2022 related to the continent – and reviews those that are planned for the next year.
Africa is set to endure another year of living dangerously in 2022. Even as sovereign foreign-currency-denominated debt has surpassed $1 trillion, with only 10% of Africans having been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
At this year’s summit, Putin has to offer African officials a better reason than mercenaries to switch allegiance from their traditional allies, President Vladimir Putin s government is organising the second Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in November: it is a moment of truth to prove how Russia has made a breakthrough in Africa and should rank as a global power, not just a regional one in Europe and Asia.
The military-backed clean-up and stronger export earnings are unlikely to help the economy. Reform is promised but structural change is unlikely, President Abdelmajid Tebboune s government breathed a typically Algerian sigh of relief as more stable oil prices and the higher gas prices have infused the cash-strapped treasury with funds. Algiers had been living off fast-dwindling foreign reserves, which stood at US$46.2 billion – not enough to cover a year of imports – at end-August, compared with around $200bn in 2014. It even drew down its extra allocation of $2.67bn from the International Monetary Fund s (IMF) issue of Special Drawing Rights last year.
As economic and security woes mount, electoral calculations will shape policy and business strategy, With presidential and national assembly elections due in February 2023, political campaigns will go into overdrive this year as alliances are made and deals struck. Outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and his allies will use his incumbency to try to influence the ruling All Progressives Congress s (APC) choice of candidates.