Guest
As of 2023, Africa’s total debt amounted to about 1.8 trillion dollars. Interestingly, as high as this figure may seem, it is actually lower than any world region. It would surprise you to know that Germany, a country in Europe, has a debt stock of about 2.9 trillion dollars which is far greater than all the debts of African countries put together. However, the problem is that African countries' debts are burdensome and put a lot of pressure on their economies because they are mainly owed to international rather than domestic lenders. In contrast, developed countries such as Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom usually borrow from domestic creditors. And, the difference between these two is that external lenders prefer to lend to developing countries in their own currency or international ‘hard currencies’ such as the dollar while domestic lenders lend using the country’s local currency. Now, more than thirty percent of Africa’s total debt is owed to so-called ‘development organizations’ like the World Bank and IMF, whose loans usually come with certain conditions that African countries must fulfill. According to reports, these loans from the IMF, and the conditions attached with them have contributed massively to the bad state of most African economies. This is why Thomas Sankara, in his critique of debt, stated that Debt is neo-colonialism, in which colonizers have transformed themselves into technical assistants… Under its current form, controlled and dominated by imperialism, debt is a skillfully managed reconquest of Africa.’ And, this is why during his reign as President of Burkina Faso, Sankara rejected loans and assistance from IMF and World Bank and even tried to persuade other African countries to collectively refuse to pay their financial debts to their former colonizers.
