Every African now spends seventy dollars a year on interest payments on public debt alone. That is 1.8 times what the continent spends on health, and more than two thirds of its combined health and education budgets. The creditor comes before the patient.
This drain is no accident, and recent work by the pan-African centre ACET confirms it plainly. Africa borrows at rates two to four times higher than the United States, and six to twelve times higher than Germany, not because it repays poorly, but because markets judge it risky out of habit. External debt service now absorbs nearly nineteen per cent of government revenue in sub-Saharan Africa, three times more than a decade ago. Faced with fragmented creditors (private bondholders, lenders outside the Paris Club, resource-backed contracts), the G20 restructuring framework has failed.
Taking back control requires two moves. At home: debt transparency laws and fiscal rules voted by parliaments. Abroad: a full African voice within the IMF and the G20, to rebuild the restructuring architecture. Not tutelage disguised as partnership, but an openly chosen bridge between Europe and Africa, between equals.
Efficient Network — MEA Strategy & Development Consulting.