Amina Mohammed: It is unacceptable that African countries have to choose between debt repayment and investments in health and education

The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has raised urgent concerns about the high debt burden faced by African countries, highlighting how many governments are being forced to choose between servicing debt and investing in crucial sectors such as healthcare and education.

In an exclusive interview with ARISE NEWS, Mohammed called for long-term concessional financing, debt restructuring and a rethink of global financing systems to support sustainable development in Africa.

She said: “Today in Africa we pay more in debt servicing than we receive in ODA (Official Development Assistance). At the same time, many of our countries must choose between paying for debt service and paying for education and health care. . This is just completely unacceptable. We need mechanisms that restructure these debts so that we can free up fiscal space, and then we can spend money on the things we actually need to spend on.”

Mohammed also underlined 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 provide more leniency, similar to the way long-term debt was managed in the aftermath of World War II . “If you get rid of debt, because with a huge amount of debt your risk profile is not that good. And so what we need to do is get our credit rating agencies and the world to look at this differently, and see that long-term concessional financing is the way to go, and we shouldn’t be risk averse about that. They didn’t do it when people borrowed to recover from World War II. They have debts that have been around for more than 30 years, and people are now only paying back part of it. So we have to go back to those mind frames, send out those signals and really look at that again.’

The Deputy Secretary-General also addressed the importance of lowering the cost of capital for African countries, as she said: “We need to lower the cost of capital, some of our countries have good macroeconomic fundamentals, and yet if you look in Europe looks at how many people have access to credit: 3.4%, Nigeria – 16%. I mean, this isn’t good. That said, we also need to create an enabling environment. We need to be prepared that when investors come in, they have access to everything they need and can naturally thrive.

“The bottom line is that when it comes to profits, we want to make profits, not on people’s backs, but from a prosperous economy where people get jobs. So we have to create that environment in case of – many of our African countries are working hard on that, but it’s not easy when you’re constrained by a lot of this debt.

On climate change, Mohammed emphasized that the climate agenda must be integrated into Africa’s economic transitions, especially in the areas of energy and industrialization.

She said: “The climate agenda is an integral part of what the economy should be addressing, so with energy transitions for example, from fossil fuels to green, that will be important for industrialisation. for those furthest behind. So you look at power, on-grid, off-grid. But more importantly, I think in Nigeria they have structured the platforms through the Ministry of Environment and the special council that the President has established. You now have an interlocutor, and with the UN the first things we’re going to do is look at the NDCs – the National Determining Contributions that we all have to bring to Brazil at COP 30 next year, covering the entire economy.

“Plans that have to do with adaptation, as you said, extreme heat, flooding, how do we deal with that and what are the early warning systems, the emergency responses that we can have, and that we are not all caught unawares at the time. And that is built into the economy – how we look at agriculture, smart agriculture that is climate resilient.”

Mohammed further explained that addressing these issues would require inclusive involvement of all stakeholders to ensure a holistic response to climate change. She said: “It will be important that everyone involved – communities who are the first to feel this, young people who have the vision and energy to drive this, parliamentarians who have to pay for the appropriations and make the regulations, and the system that has to looking at how they will generate a response with technology, with education, with health care, all in very extreme environments.

“Another issue that I think will emerge is that cities will be looked at differently. If they are on the coast, sea levels will rise. If they are delta, sea levels will rise. How do we deal with the cities and what that will mean for internal displacement, that means better planning. Urban planning will be a big thing in the future.”

Reflecting on her tenure at the UN, Mohammed said: “I want to make sure I leave this place better than I met it, I think that’s already happened. So if I were to leave today, I could say that under the Secretary General’s watch, we have been able to ensure that we have 50 to 50, 50 percent women in leadership positions at the UN. 50 percent men. That wasn’t the case when I came. The rest of the coordinators leading the UN footprint in more than 140 countries are also half women, half men. There are younger people in these positions now. In the UN we have a youth agency for the first time. We have appointed special envoys and offices to deal with sexual exploitation and abuse, there is a strategy for disabled people. I think these are all things that I would say have been successful so far. Still, I still have a few years left, and what I would like to see is many more.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi