The World Bank is predicting the first recession in 25 years for sub-Saharan African countries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Bretton Wood institution, the region’s economy will shrink by as much as 5.1%.

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to decline from 2.4% in 2019 to -2.1 to -5.1% in 2020, the first recession in the region in 25 years.

It pointed out that the coronavirus is hitting the region’s three largest economies — Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola— in a context of persistently weak growth and investment.

“In particular, countries that depend on oil and mining exports, including Ghana, would be hit the hardest. The negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household welfare would be equally dramatic.

African policymakers need to develop a two-pronged strategy of “saving lives and protecting livelihoods”, it said.

This strategy includes (short-term) relief measures and (medium-term) recovery measures aimed at strengthening health systems, providing income support to workers and liquidity support to viable businesses.

However, financing of these policies will be challenging amid deteriorating fiscal positions and heightened public debt vulnerabilities, the World Bank explained.

It, therefore, said African countries will require financial assistance from their development partners, including COVID-19-related multilateral assistance and a debt service standstill with official bilateral creditors.

Several African countries are using lockdowns to control the spread of the virus.

These will also negatively affect economic growth on a continent, which has had some of the world's fastest-growing economies in recent years.