(PHOTO CREDITS: Courtesy DAILY NATION)
African leaders are pushing ahead with calls for debt cancellation even as it turns out each country may lobby its own bids to have the burdens eased amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Choked with monies borrowed mostly from China and multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, the novel coronavirus disease has added the possibility of countries’ inability to service debts or essentially being forced to pay up and ignore health emergencies.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa have recently supported those calls, saying it could make the difference between saving humanity and its economies, or risking death.
Writing in The New York Times on Thursday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed argued his country was facing a “dilemma” between paying debts and attending to the sick, both of which cost money.
