Africa calls for debt write-off

2005-06-20 08:22

Abuja - Six African heads of state meeting in the Nigerian capital on Sunday called on next month's G8 summit in Scotland to cancel the debt of all African countries.

In a statement the leaders commended the recent decision of finance ministers of the world's most industrialised nations to cancel the debt of 18, mostly African nations, as "progress" and called "for steps to be taken to include all African countries".

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country holds the current rotating presidency of the African Union (AU), chaired the meeting, which was also attended by presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, John Kufuor of Ghana, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Diogo was also present at the meeting to consider a progress report on the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals ahead of next month's G-8 summit in Scotland, while Benin, Egypt and Senegal were also represented.

Writing debt off recently

The Group of Eight industrialised countries earlier in June struck a landmark deal to write off immediately all multilateral debt owed by 18 countries, 14 of them in Africa, amounting to $40bn.

The debt relief decision by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States (US) concerns money owed to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Bank (ADB).

Debt relief has assumed a higher profile as the world struggles to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals calling for the proportion of the world's population living on less than $1 a day to be halved by 2015.

It is also a vital part of a broad strategy to wipe away chronic poverty in Africa which British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making a centrepiece of the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6 to 8. Britain is chairing the informal group of the world's richest nations this year.

More money needed for peace, security

In their statement the African leaders also asked for more funding for the AU's peace and security programme and for development assistance to double over three years and to continue to rise so Africa can meet its millennium goals.

They also called for the creation of a $20bn development fund, managed by the ADB, to finance projects in the areas of infrastructure, health, education, water, sanitation and agriculture, within the framework of the ambitious programme for African development known as Nepad.

The Abuja meeting is the third such session of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary programme under which African countries are reviewed by other countries on issues such as good governance and public financial accountability.

- AFP