Saturday-April-2024 {HMC} Africa’s immense economic potential is being undermined by non-transparent resource-backed loans that complicate debt resolution and compromise countries’ future growth, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said on Thursday.

“I think it’s time for us to have debt transparency accountability and make sure that this whole thing of these opaque natural resource-backed loans actually ends, because it complicates the debt issue and the debt resolution issue,” Adesina told journalist Yinka Adegoke at the Semafor World Economy Summit taking place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank2024 Spring Meetings.

Adesina highlighted the challenges posed by Africa’s ballooning external debt, which reached $824 billion in 2021, with countries dedicating 65% of their GDP to servicing these obligations. He said the continent would pay $74 billion in debt service payments this year alone, a sharp increase from $17 billion in 2010.

While acknowledging the fiscal pressures faced by African nations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, infrastructure needs, and rising inflation, Adesina emphasised the need to address the structural issues in Africa’s debt landscape. He pointed out the shift from concessional financing to more expensive and short-term commercial debt, with Eurobond debt now accounting for 44% of Africa’s total debt, up from 14-17% previously.

He also criticized the “Africa premium” that countries pay when accessing capital markets, despite data showing that Africa’s default rates are lower than those of other regions. He called for an end to this risk perception, which he said leads to higher borrowing costs for African nations.

The African Development Bank head stressed the importance of putting in place an orderly and predictable way of dealing with Africa’s debt, urging for faster implementation of the G20 Common Framework.

He also highlighted the need for increased concessional financing, particularly for low-income countries. “What’s particularly interesting in Africa is that the level of concessional financing itself has actually gone down, has shrunk significantly,” he said, adding that the African Development Fund—the Bank Group’s concessional lending arm to low-income countries—is providing long-term financing at low interest rates to the 37 most vulnerable countries.

Adesina discussed various instruments and initiatives employed by the African Development Bank to de-risk projects and attract institutional investors, such as partial credit guarantees, hybrid capital, and synthetic securitisation.

Looking ahead, Adesina expressed optimism about the opportunities in Africa, particularly in renewable energy, given the continent’s vast solar potential. He also highlighted the Africa Investment Forum, a platform created by the Bank and its partners, that brings together investors from around the world to facilitate large-scale investments in key sectors like infrastructure, digital, and renewable energy.

“Africa is the best investment destination in the world,” Adesina concluded, emphasizing the African Development Bank’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for investments to thrive.

The Semafor summit session —titled “Rising Global Middle Class: Is Rising Developing Nation Debt a Blessing or a Curse?”—brought together a range of participants for conversations on the increasing debt burden faced by developing countries as borrowing costs have risen.

Other notable participants included Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Raj Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation; Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund; and Brent Neiman Assistant Secretary for International Finance, U.S. Treasury.

Shah emphasised the importance of balancing developing countries economic needs with the need for climate action. He said that to assist the South African government in efforts to decommission the country’s coal-fired Komati power station, the Rockefeller Foundation, through the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, had developed a plan that would retrain workers at the plant while also creating new jobs and upgrading transmission infrastructure so that renewable energy could empower local businesses. “It’s an unrealistic conversation to just ask people to shut down their only real source of prosperity and cause job losses,” Shah said.

Neiman addressed the U.S government’s efforts to assist African countries in reducing debt loads. He noted that Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Kenya, had issued almost $5 billion in bonds since the beginning of 2024, at interest rates ranging from 8 to 10 percent. He said this was evidence that emerging economies remain able to tap capital markets. He also cited the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable as instrumental in bringing together creditors and debtors to tackle rising debt burdens in developing countries.

Adesina is in Washington to attend the 2024 International Monetary Fund/World Bank Spring Meetings.

Saturday-April-2024 {HMC} Following the conclusion of the G7 foreign ministers meeting held in Capri, Italy between 17 – 19 April, member states said they expressed concern regarding the Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and the Somaliland region of Somalia announced in January 2024.

The countries also said they encourage both Ethiopia and Somalia “to keep all channels of dialogue open to prevent further escalation, working with regional partners, in the framework of the African Union and through bilateral contacts, in accordance with international law and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity as enshrined in the UN Charter.”

While welcoming developments in the implementation of the Pretoria cessation of hostilities agreement between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the group of developed countries including the High Representative of the European Union member states also expressed concern about “the persistent and violent tensions in many areas of the country, as well as reports of human rights violations and abuses, the severe economic crisis and widening food insecurity.”

The G7 countries encouraged lasting developments in the protection of human rights, protection of civilians, political dialogue to resolve tensions, reconciliation and national dialogue, transitional justice, and accountability for crimes committed during the conflict.

The group called for “similar commitment by those involved in conflicts in other regions of Ethiopia to pursue peace through dialogue,” and underscored the importance of delivering peace dividend quickly for conflict-affected populations through recovery and reconstruction support, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants, and implementation of durable solutions for Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

SOURCE 

Saturday-April-2024 {HMC}  Nigeria and Cameroon on Friday signed a historic partnership designed to protect wildlife, preserve critical habitats and tackle illegal wildlife trade across their borders.

Nigeria’s environment minister, his Cameroonian counterpart and other dignitaries were present at a signing ceremony for the pact, which provides legal support for the joint protection of endangered species, including gorillas and chimpanzees, and shared natural habitats.

Authorities said the countries would share intelligence, conduct research and strengthen law enforcement against offenders.

Jules Doret Ndongo, Cameroon’s minister of forestry and wildlife, said, “The exploitation of forestry resources and poaching, especially cross-border poaching, are serious threats to the sustainable management of our natural resources.”

The partnership will also address illegal hunting and wildlife trafficking.

Nigeria shares a nearly 2,000-kilometer border to the south with Cameroon. The region is home to some of Africa’s most endangered species of apes, chimpanzees, leopards and elephants, all of them threatened by poaching, growing population, mining activities and illegal felling of trees.

Balarbe Abbas Lawal, Nigeria’s environment minister. said that “apart from the global phenomenon of climate change and environmental challenges, social factors include overpopulation, poverty, food insecurity have continued to amass these resources on the brink of extinction. While this is going on, cross-boundary illegality has further aggravated the trend. And we’re coming up with so many other steps to address this, including trying to enforce our legal system to see environmental crime as serious as other crimes. So we need the cooperation of the two countries to achieve this.”

Nigeria is the epicenter of wildlife smuggling in Africa. Pangolin scales and elephant ivory are the most trafficked items.

In February, Nigerian authorities intercepted 200 kilograms of elephant tusks in a southern border town near Cameroon.

Lack of awareness and prosecution of offenders are the reasons the trend has continued.

Apart from the joint partnership, Nigerian lawmakers are also considering a new bill that would protect endangered species and punish wildlife poachers and traffickers. A public hearing for the bill is expected in May.

SOURCE VOA

Saturday-April-2024 {HMC}  The United States will withdraw its troops from Niger, a source familiar with the matter said late on Friday, adding that an agreement was reached between U.S Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger’s leadership.

As of last year, there were a little more than 1,000 U.S. troops in Niger, where the U.S. military operated out of two bases, including a drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.

Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the Sahel region.

Last year, Niger’s army seized power in a coup. Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of the United States and France.

But the new authorities in Niger joined juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies like Washington and Paris, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS, and fostering closer ties with Russia.

In the coming days, there will be conversations about how that drawdown of troops will look, the source told Reuters, asking not to identified.

The source said there would still be diplomatic and economic relationships between the U.S. and Niger despite this step.

Earlier Friday, The New York Times reported that more than 1,000 American military personnel will leave Niger in coming months.

Last month, Niger’s ruling junta said it revoked with immediate effect a military accord that allowed military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil.

The Pentagon had said thereafter it was seeking clarification about the way ahead. It added that the U.S. government had “direct and frank” conversations in Niger ahead of the junta’s announcement and was continuing to communicate with Niger’s ruling military council.

Hundreds took to the streets of Niger’s capital last week to demand the departure of U.S. troops after the ruling junta further shifted its strategy by ending the military accord with the United States and welcoming Russian military instructors.

Eight coups in West and Central Africa over four years, including in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, have prompted growing concerns over democratic backsliding in the region.

SOURCE VOA