United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, has raised urgent concerns over the high debt burden faced by African nations, highlighting how many governments are forced to choose between servicing debt and investing in critical sectors such as health and education.
In an exclusive interview with ARISE NEWS, Mohammed called for long-term concessional funding, debt restructuring, and a rethink of global financing systems to support sustainable development in Africa.
She said, “Today in Africa, we are paying more in debt servicing than we are receiving ODA (Official Development Assistance), at the same time, many of our countries are having to choose between paying for debt servicing and paying for education and health. This is just completely unacceptable. We have to have mechanisms that will restructure this debt so that we can free up fiscal space, and then we are able to spend on the things that we’re supposed to spend on.”
Mohammed also underscored the need for the international community to reconsider how Africa’s credit ratings and risk profiles are evaluated, suggesting that the global financial system could offer more leniency, similar to how long-term debts were managed in the aftermath of World War II, saying, “If you move aside from debt, because with an enormous amount of debt, your risk profile is not so good. And so what we have to do is get our credit rating agencies and the world to look at this differently, and to see that long term concessional funding is the way to go, and not to be risk averse to that. They didn’t do it when people were borrowing to recover from World War II. They have debt that’s there over 30 years, people just paying some of it back now. So, we have to get back into those mind frames, send those signals, and really look at that again.”
The Deputy Secretary-General also addressed the importance of reducing the cost of capital for African countries as she said, “We have to reduce the cost of capital, some of our countries have got good macroeconomic fundamentals, and yet, when you look in Europe at how much people are accessing credit at 3, 4%, Nigeria- 16%. I mean, this is not good. Having said that, we also have to create an enabling environment. We have to be prepared so that when investors do come in, that they’re able to access all that is needed and of course to prosper.
“The bottom line is that if this is about profit, what we want is profit not off the backs of people, but from a prosperous economy that includes people for jobs. So, we have to create that environment in the case of- many of our African countries are working hard at that, but it’s not easy when you’re constrained by a lot of this debt.”
On climate change, Mohammed stressed that the climate agenda must be integrated into Africa’s economic transitions, particularly in energy and industrialisation.
She said, “The climate agenda is an integral part of what the economy should be addressing, so, in its transitions on energy for instance, from fossil fuel to green, that’s going to be important for industrialisation, it’s going to be important to get to those that are furthest behind. So, you look at power, on grid, off grid. But more importantly, I think in Nigeria what they’ve done is structure the platforms through the ministry of environment and the special council that the president has put in place, you’ve now got an interlocutor, and with the UN, the first things that we will be doing is looking at the NDCs- the National Determining contributions that we all have to bring to Brazil in COP 30 next year, that they’re economy wide.
“Plans that deal with adaptation, just like you said, extreme heat, floods, how are we going to deal with that and what are the early warning systems, the emergency responses that we can have, and that we’re not caught unawares all the time. And that has been built into the economy- how we look at agriculture, smart agriculture that is climate resistant.”
Mohammed further explained that addressing these issues would require inclusive involvement from all stakeholders to ensure a holistic response to climate change as she said, “It’s going to be important that everyone’s involved- communities that feel this first, young people who will have the vision and the energy to drive this, parliamentarians that have to make the appropriations and have to make the regulations, and the system that has to look at how they will generate a response with technology, to education, to health, all of those in very extreme environments.
“One other issue that I would say is going to come up is that cities are going to be looked at differently. If they’re coastal, sea levels will rise. If they’re delta, sea levels will rise. How are we going to deal with the cities and what that will mean for internal displacement, that means better planning. Urban planning will become a big thing in the future.”
Reflecting on her tenure at the UN, Mohammed said, “I just want to make sure I leave this place better than I met it, I think that’s already happened. So, if I was to leave today, I would be able to say that under the watch of the Secretary-General, we have been able to ensure that in executive positions in the UN, we are 50-50, 50 per cent women, 50 per cent men. It was not like that when I came. Of the rest of coordinators that manage the leadership of UN footprint in over 140 countries, it’s also half women, half men. There are younger people in these positions now. In the UN, we have for the first time a youth office. We have put in special envoys and offices that deal with sexual exploitation and abuse, there is a disability strategy. I think that these are all things that I would say are success so far. Still, got a couple years to go, and what I would like to see is many more.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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