European, American and African leaders, together with financial institutions, are looking for ways to help restart growth in Africa after the Covid health crisis when they meet in France this week.
Described as a “New Deal” for African economies, they aim to find solutions to Africa’s international debt, which could see the continent fall into recession.
The BBC’s Maggie Mutesi says it’s the big economies that are at the table and they’ll be looking at a range of problems.
For Zambia, a country which is indebted to China, the problem is one of how to meet its obligations now.
While countries like Mozambique, suffering from insurgency, have seen “investors going out” of the country and “in the long run will be spending a lot of money to keep the country stable”.
She says it’s a debt that “great-grandchildren will have to pay for”.
Ramah Nyang, an economic journalist with Bloomberg Africa, says such meetings “are highbrow but hit us all where it hurts”.
International leaders will have to look at debt being paid back over a longer period but governments also need to consider downsizing.
In Africa Daily, Nancy Kacungira has been looking at the extent of Africa’s debt problem and how a deal might help the continent.
