Keypoints:
- Debt repayments now outpace health and public investment across Africa
- Jubilee Report urges creditor accountability and reform
- African faith and civic leaders call for debt justice
AFRICA is facing its worst debt crisis in decades. As new analysis reveals that more than half the continent now spends more servicing debt than on health or education, economists and moral leaders are calling for radical change.
A powerful Jubilee Report released this June — and echoed by fresh reporting on the continent’s spiralling repayments — outlines a clear demand: cancel unjust debt, redesign the global financial system, and restore economic sovereignty to African nations.
‘This isn’t just about economic arithmetic,’ said one contributor to the report. ‘It’s a moral crisis. When a continent spends more to pay creditors than to care for its sick, something has gone terribly wrong.’
A devastating diversion of resources
The stark figures are hard to ignore. According to the World Bank, developing countries spent over $1.4 trillion on debt repayments in 2023 — a level described as a ‘devastating diversion of resources’. In Africa alone, nearly three in five people now live in countries that allocate more to interest payments than to health or education.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and lead author of the Jubilee Commission study, did not mince words: ‘There is growing consensus among experts that the current debt system serves financial markets, not people.’
Former Argentine finance minister Martín Guzmán added: ‘Debt is crowding out investments in health, education and climate resilience. It’s making economic and social conditions in many African nations dramatically worse.’
In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, interest payments are set to consume more than 30 percent of general government revenue this year — with just 4.3 percent of the federal budget going to health.
Jubilee call: cancel debt and share risk
The Jubilee Report proposes a comprehensive solution, combining immediate debt cancellation with structural financial reform. It calls for the introduction of new ‘climate-contingent debt instruments’ that allow countries to pause or adjust repayments when faced with natural disasters or market shocks.
‘Debt contracts must reflect reality,’ the report argues. ‘African governments should not be punished when floods, droughts or pandemics strike. That’s not finance — it’s cruelty.’
Other proposals include the scaling up of ‘debt-for-nature swaps’ and stronger capital support for multilateral development banks such as the African Development Bank.
But at its core, the report returns to a simple yet urgent demand: the international community must repeat the kind of widespread debt restructuring seen under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which cancelled $100 bn of African debt in the early 2000s.
Creditor accountability: private lenders in the spotlight
One key obstacle to modern debt relief is the rise of private lenders. Over 43 percent of Africa’s external debt is now held by Western private creditors — including investment giants like BlackRock, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs. Much of it is governed by English law, making restructuring far more complex.
‘Private lenders must be part of the solution,’ said a debt campaigner. ‘They profited handsomely from African bonds — they must now help bear the cost of repair.’
The report urges legal reforms to compel private creditor participation in debt write-downs, alongside stronger UN-led mechanisms for sovereign debt resolution.
Yet resistance remains fierce. African nations had hoped the upcoming UN Financing for Development Conference in Seville would commit to far-reaching reform. But the latest draft outcome offers only vague pledges to ‘explore options’ for improved debt architecture.
‘We had hoped for a transformation,’ said one African delegate. ‘We got a footnote.’
A continental chorus for justice
Faith leaders across Africa have taken up the Jubilee cause with urgency. From Catholic bishops to Muslim scholars and Pentecostal pastors, a unified voice is rising: cancel the debt, reform the rules, restore justice.
‘This is not about charity,’ said an East African bishop. ‘It is about righting a historic wrong. Africa’s resources have funded others’ wealth. Now we ask to breathe, to build, to heal.’
As Africa enters what the African Union has declared its ‘Year of Reparations’, the call from both pulpits and policy halls is growing louder: enough is enough.
