Coronavirus: China must help ease the debt burden of Africa - Ken Ofori-Atta

The African continent is not the hardest hit by covid-19, however, its countries are already facing the grim impact.

“My feeling is that China has to come on stronger,” Ofori-Atta said during a conversation on Monday with Masood Ahmed, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development.

“African debt to China is $145 billion or so, over $8 billion of payments is required this year … So that needs to be looked at.” He added.

In the face of the outbreak, some African governments are calling for several financial assistance, including support for a moratorium on all external debt and eventually some debt write-offs.

Ken Ofori-Atta says African countries are seeking ways to increase their special drawing rights (SDR), a form of foreign exchange reserves managed by the IMF, to shield against commercial debt defaults.

“This should not happen,” Ofori-Atta added. “So we should find a way to increase SDRs or for the Europeans to offer their SDRs as a way out.”

Ofori-Atta now chairs the Development Committee – a ministerial-level forum that advises the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on development issues.