Africa is set to be hit hard during the second round of the financial crisis.

A liaison officer at the Africa Development Bank in charge of regional economic communities, partnerships, Menneh Lamin said massive job losses by Africans in the diaspora could increase the current high rate of unemployment on the continent.

Speaking at the United Nations Conference Center - UNCC in Addis Ababa, Lamin said due to job losses by Africans working in the diaspora, remittances to their mother countries are set to fall sharply.

The AfDB Liaison officer said some countries on the continent have been benefiting from remittances which at times account for over 40 per cent of their national gross domestic product.

"With job losses these countries are going to face an up hill task in trying to peg their yawning gaps in national growth," said Lamin.

Lamin was speaking at the New Partnership for Africa's Development - Nepad open forum that brought together policy people from the continent, civil society organizations and the Nepad Secretariat, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - UNECA and women organizations.

He said the African Development Bank - AfDB has put in place US$ 5 Billion to help African economies continue developing their projects as a stop gap measure in the face of dwindling resources.

He said the bank has a package that will see a number of countries on the continent access trade financing funds to help maintain trade in the respective regional

economic communities and countries in order to cushion the African economies from the adverse effects of the second round of the economic crisis.

He urged African countries to brace themselves in the face of the decline in GDP growth when development partners reduce funding to the local economies because of the current fall in their national economies and foreign direct investment to developing economies is reduced.

"Most developed economies could start looking at their own domestic growth and redirect funding to the local program at the expense of ongoing programs in Africa," he said.

Lamin however noted that owing to strict regulation by Central Banks on the African continent the imminent threat of the second phase of the economic recession might not hurt the local economies much.

"The problem will be that there will be reduction in the momentum of economic development due to reduced funding, however this will fizzle out, the time line is not clear," Lamin said.