High debt-to-GDP levels, high fiscal deficits, high costs of borrowing, and depreciation of many African currencies against the euro and the dollar have been the main challenges facing African countries even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Most African governments have taken steps over the past few years to strengthen their debt management strategies and procedures. However, these have not been very effective as debt levels remain relatively high in most African countries. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, already 22 African countries recorded debt-to-GDP ratio of above the continental average of 61 per cent whilst 18 countries are either in debt distress or at high risk of it. Indeed, evidence abound that, the structure of the portfolio of the African debt has changed, with the external foreign-currency debt accounting for about 60 per cent of total debt. High debt levels, coupled with the health and economic effects of COVID-19 are posing a formidable challenge for most African countries, raising doubts about the sustainability of debt dynamics in most African countries in the short- to medium-term. COVID-19 is further weakening an already fragile macroeconomic outlook, where debt accumulation has outpaced the growth of income, even before the crisis. With the prevailing consequential health and economic effects of COVID-19, the continent’s is experiencing an unanticipated increase in government spending with very limited fiscal space and domestic revenue. Borrowing appears to come in handy for countries hence increasing the already high debts further hampering Africa’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Falling oil and commodity prices and a decline in global demand have led to a decline in export revenues hence experiencing severe contractions in foreign exchange flows which exacerbate balance of payments pres¬sures and debt distress, raising the likelihood of sovereign defaults. It is for this reason that United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) made an urgent call to mobilize an initial $100 billion for economic stabilisation in Africa from the international community, and a debt-servicing freeze window for 2 to 3 years to provide fiscal space for the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Efforts to stabilize the macroeconomy through infusion of new capital is timely. However, this will have long-term effects due to the accumulation of public debt post COVID-19. These developments call for robust and coordinated immediate responses guided by evidence-based-and-driven research that leverages on multilateral cooperation to address and mitigate these challenges. Befitting to its think-tank role, the current situation provides immense opportunities for ECA to provide thought leadership, looking beyond the current emergency phase, to rethink traditional development models that could enhance the continent’s recovery. As the continent embarks on its recovery efforts, it is imperative for ECA to seize this opportunity and put forward an alternative vision that could break the vicious cycle of indebtedness and aid dependence and increase access to debt markets at relatively lower borrowing costs. To fulfill this mandate the ECA needs to have access to and utilize comprehensive analytical knowledge products and the associated real time or most recent datasets pertaining to countries’ performance in Africa and beyond. It is in this regard that the ECA seeks the services of an institution or a company to provide the necessary data and knowledge products that could help ECA in its economic growth, fiscal and monetary policy management support to African countries as they respond and recover from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including, but not limited to the envisaged economic vulnerabilities as a result of high debt risk or debt distress and high fiscal deficits.