Gabon, like other countries on the continent, calls for the cancellation of the debt of African countries without distinction of category. The announcement was officially made by Prime Minister Julien Nkoghe Bekale .
Gabon is in favor of the total elimination of the debt of the countries of the continent without distinction of category, as desired by several countries. This position was expressed on April 27 by the Prime Minister. The outright cancellation of this debt, valued today at $ 365 billion, vis-à-vis bilateral and multilateral partners, would be, according to Julien Nkoghe Bekale, “a significant breath of fresh air to cushion the shock of this crisis and ensuring the revival of the economy.” Because, according to some specialists, the shock promises to be more severe than that of the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
In fact, according to the Prime Minister who did not fail to salute the effort of the International Monetary Fund to grant a disbursement of $ 147 million for Gabon under the rapid financing instrument to deal with the pandemic of Covid-19, the need for funding is such that emergency aid and internal adjustment will be largely insufficient.
A moratorium on the repayment of bilateral government loans, as granted to low-income countries by the G20 countries, although it would make it possible to no longer repay the interest on the debt, it “will reproduce the classic treatments of deferral or rescheduling of debt that have led to a dead end in the past. ”
At the level of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community CEMAC, Gabon hopes that the Bank of Central African States BEAC will play a more important role by proposing support mechanisms for the States that are active in other monetary zones, such as the repurchase of part of the public securities issued on the sub-regional financial market or a temporary recourse to statutory advances. “We will share these reflections with our peers in the CEMAC sub-region in the coming days in order to have a common position and coordinated action,” assured Julien Nkoghe Bekale.
African debt breaks down as follows: 110 billion owed to multilateral creditors, 99 billion to bilateral creditors and 156 to private creditors (especially bonds). China is the main creditor of African states, its claim being assessed with great imprecision between 20% and 40% of the total according to different sources. On the other hand, $ 144 billion was specifically loaned between 2000 and 2017, according to a monitoring of this debt carried out by the American university Johns Hopkins.
