The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, wrapped up his official two-day visit to Kenya on Tuesday. He addressed his concerns about the challenges African countries face amid the global financial crisis. But he remains optimistic on Africa's faster-than-expected economic recovery from the crisis. CRI Nairobi correspondent Wei Tong has more.

 When he delivered a speech at the University of Nairobi, Strauss-Kahn said the year 2009 was a year of tragedy for Africa's economy, featuring the shrinking of trade and capital flow stagnancy.

"African countries were largely the innocent victims of this crisis. The crisis struck Africa through many different channels. We saw trade plummet. We saw capital flows dry up. We saw remittances slow. We saw banks getting into trouble. The result has been a very disappointing year for the African economy. In 2009, the (economic) growth was about 2 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, (while it was) 6 to 7 percent beforehand. Average per capita income, which is probably the most important index, fell in 2009. It was the first decline in nearly two decades."

Strauss-Kahn says the financial crisis may imply loss of jobs and real estate in other parts of the world. But in Africa, the crisis may lead to the loss of lives since the continent lacks a well-developed social security system and primarily relies on foreign aid and remittances.

But Strauss-Kahn says Africa is indeed seeing a faster economic recovery than the IMF predicted, which is amazingly formidable.

"And when you look at Africa, what is amazing is that traditionally recovery in Africa tended to lag well behind recovery in the rest of the world, which is not the case today. Why? One main reason is many African countries ran good policies before the crisis. And these policies have inoculated them against a more severe downturn. What did they do? They strengthened fiscal policy; they reduced the burdens; they bore down on inflation. And all of them had to strive to preserve public spending to protect the poor and the vulnerable. In 32 countries, some special cash transfer programs have been implemented. Some adopted a developmental approach to social protection and food security."

Strauss-Kahn says the IMF has offered 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in preferential loans for Africa in 2009, tripling the amount in 2008 before the outbreak of the financial crisis. The IMF predicts Africa's economic growth rate in 2010 will reach 4.5 percent, or 0.5 percent higher than the previous forecast.

But Strauss-Kahn also warns that Africa should focus more attention on improving the well-being of its people rather than solely relying on foreign aid and remittances.

"Africa remains highly vulnerable to economic dislocation. Think about swinging commodity prices; think about natural disasters; think about the need not to rely too much on remittances, FDI or aid; think about climate change. Africa will continue to face costly shocks, and those shocks have not only to deal with economic instability because from economic instability, you go very far to social instability and from social instability you get close to a breakdown in democracy. And from (a breakdown) in democracy, sometimes you fall into war. Widening income inequality can aggravate tensions and make shocks more destabilizing. So how can countries like yours, including Kenya, increase resilience to shocks? I think that policymakers should now explore some innovative approach. For example, natural disaster insurance."

Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's Minister for Finance, praises the IMF's actions in delivering African countries from the darkness of financial storms and guiding them into the light.

"The scaling up of IMF support not only will help these low-income countries weather the crisis that is not of their making. But once the crisis has passed, it will also pave the way for progression in the battle against poverty. Here in Kenya, we have implemented reforms, public financial management, and budgeting processes have been improved. Our revenues have almost more than doubled over the last six years, and we are able to effectively manage our debt. The government of Kenya is currently implementing the economic stimulus program and focuses on sectors that will generate the maximum benefit, restore the confidence of Kenyans and indeed assist business communities to weather the storm while also protect the livelihoods of the poor as well as creating employment for our youths."

Kenya is the first leg of Strauss-Kahn's African tour. He flies to Pretoria, South Africa, on Tuesday.

Wei Tong, CRI News, Nairobi, Kenya.