The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the Second World War. While it began as a health crisis, it has far reaching economic ramifications. For Africa the pandemic’s impacts will be particularly severe – by exacting a heavy human toll, upending livelihoods and damaging business and government balance sheets, the crisis threatens to slow down the region’s growth prospects for years to come. According to the World Bank the pandemic has set off the first recession in the Sub-Saharan Africa region in 25 years.