By Nadia Ouedraogo, Issoufou Seidou, Abel Akara Ticha and Antonio Pedro*
The paradox of Central Africa is that it constellates countries extremely rich in natural resources needed for global development, yet these countries cannot finance their development agendas without recourse to expensive loans and aid with attached strings. The situation becomes dire when faced with externalities such as plummeting commodity prices or a pandemic such as COVID-19. But this ought never to be so!