African Union requests a $100 billion allocation from IMF's special drawing rights.

• The African Union wants the redirection of at least $100 billion in International Monetary Fund special drawing rights to Africa.
• The fund should be channelled through institutions such as the African Development Bank.
• The IMF should also consider issuing at least $650 billion of new special drawing rights.

The African Union has called for the redirection of at least $100 billion in International Monetary Fund special drawing rights to Africa.

This was made known in an updated declaration following the continent's inaugural climate summit in Kenya.

The continental body wants the fund to be channelled through institutions such as the African Development Bank and a group of SDR donors should be formed before COP28, Bloomberg reported.

The AU wants the IMF to also consider issuing at least $650 billion of new special drawing rights, and multilateral development banks should be recapitalized so that they can lend more than $500 billion in concessional finance.

In 2021, wealthy nations reached an agreement to rechannel some of their unused IMF special drawing rights, an international reserve currency, to poor countries.

The plan was to make $100 billion available by lending the SDRS back to the IMF, enabling it to subsequently lend the funds to low-income countries at interest rates below market rates.

In June 2023, the International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, announced that the financial body has hit the $100 billion target of special drawing rights for vulnerable countries, Reuters reported.

We have reached $100 billion on lending of SDRs. That was our target from 2021, we have achieved that target, and 60 billion of those are already in the Fund working for countries, Georgieva said.

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