Africa needs an immediate emergency economic stimulus of $100-billion to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and almost half of that could come from waiving interest payments for countries on the continent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The waiver of interest payments, estimated at $44-billion for 2020, and the possible extension of the waiver to the medium term, would provide immediate fiscal space and liquidity to the governments, in their efforts to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ECA said Monday in a statement after the continent’s finance ministers had a virtual meeting on March 19. The waiver should include not only interest payments on public debt, but also on sovereign bonds, it said.