As leaders in Africa no doubt watch with some measure of disbelief how their wealthier peers in China, Europe, and the United States marshall trillion-dollar relief packages to fight the COVID-19 induced economic crisis, they’ve got to be wondering how it’s possible that these rich countries still haven’t mustered up a mere $100 billion of emergency assistance and introduced a meaningful debt relief package.

So far, wealthy countries, embodied by the Group of 20 (G20), have either been unwilling or unable to meet the challenge in Africa to provide even modest economic relief through debt restructuring or large-scale financial assistance. The fact that G20 finance ministers couldn’t even agree to extend the G20’s debt service suspension initiative through the end of next year highlights the severity of the situation.