Although the continent's economy had been projected to grow by more than 130%, Africa is now falling further behind according to the study, with projected average economic growth at just 4.3% from 2020 to 2040.

"COVID-19 is going to have a huge impact on growth in Africa and while we have to deal with the health and the mortality impact in the short term, this accentuates the importance of restructuring African economies for much more rapid growth.

"The study comes at a very important time and is the first comprehensive long-term forecast of the health and economic impact of the pandemic on Africa up to 2030," said Markus Ferber, Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the German Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS), one of the financial backers of the research project.

The report, which is titled: "Death, debt and opportunity -- the cost of COVID-19 in Africa," has urged lenders and investors to suspend or cancel Africa's debts to help the continent recover from the aftermath of the outbreak.

Light at the end of the tunnel

However, the study also highlights a potentially bright future for African economies if governments don't just rely on emergency measures to fight the pandemic and instead focus on building resilience and focusing on prospects for long-term growth by putting more resources towards health and basic infrastructure.