AFRICAN Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) Executive Director Jason Braganza has expressed concern over how challenges arising from debt servicing to international monetary facilities by African countries are going unreported due to lack of information and statistics among other challenges.
Braganza was speaking at the official opening of the 5th edition of the AFRODAD Media Initiative (AFROMedI) held in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa recently.
With half of the continent currently being in debt distress, Braganza said the need to capacitate the media for the benefit of the public and holding authorities accountable.
“Despite these very grave economic challenges, the role of media in reporting these challenges and the diversion of much-needed resources to debt servicing is largely going unreported.
“Lack of information, accompanied by inaccessible debt statistics and public reporting, is undermining the public’s ability to interact and play its role in holding government to account.
“In Africa, as of today, more than half of the continent is facing a situation of being in debt distress or at high risk of being in debt distress,” he said.
Four countries have already defaulted on their debt: these are Zambia, Chad, Ethiopia, and more recently, Ghana.
According to Braganza close to half the continent’s countries are paying more in debt service interest repayments than on investments in public services such as education, health, water, and sanitation.
The fifth edition of the AFROMedi was attended by 45 journalists drawn from 31 African countries.
Afrodad is a Pan-African civil society organisation established over 25 years ago with the single objective of advancing African voices on issues of public debts and development finance. We are currently headquartered in Zimbabwe.
Through this year’s AFROMedi V, journalists were capacitated to link reparations to global development processes and to prioritise in-depth reporting that advances Africa’s position on reparative justice with a keen focus on public debt and related issues including taxation, trade, labour, climate finance, and legal elements of debt among others.
Afrodad Executive Director urged journalists to keep in mind how this situation is undermining Africa’s sovereignty, emancipation from a neo-liberal, private profit-based world order, leaving Africans in a perpetual state of poverty, inequality, and indebtedness.
“It is, therefore, fitting that the African Union theme of 2025 is on reparations and reparative justice for the continent,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, Christian Ayiku, Afrodad’s Trustee member and Ghanaian economic analyst based in South Africa echoed Braganza’s sentiments stating that the current debt crises Africa is facing threatens to reverse years of development gains and historical debt relief efforts.
“From the African Debt Risk Map, countries like Sudan, Somaliland, Somalia, Ghana, Sao Tome & Principe, Congo Republic, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Angola, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Kenya are struggling from a heavy burden of debt.
“The role of the media in this campaign is crucial as they are empowered to set the agenda that works for the people of the continent,” he said.
AFRODAD through AFROMedi, and its partners, has been working with the media to set public debt and linked issues on the agenda as a priority.
This has also played a key role in democratising the debt discourse, thus giving citizens the power to influence debt policy through electoral choices.
“The media plays a crucial role in shaping public discourse, influencing policy decisions and bringing attention to socio-economic issues.
“Therefore, empowering journalists to set an agenda that aims at ensuring accountability and keeping people informed on key processes remains crucial.
“It is important to engage journalists in this process to ensure citizens are informed and engaged.
“In a nutshell, AfroMedi will offer increased capacity to report on debt reparative justice, through humanising the issues, focusing on data-driven reporting, offering historical context of injustice and proffering policy solutions from interviews with technical persons in the civil society space.”
