The President of the African Union Commission, Mousas Faki Mahamat has disclosed that stock of public debt in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2022 was estimated at $1,140 billion and of 650 billion Sustainable Development Revenues (SDRs) mobilized, Africa only received 33 billion, or 4.5%.
Faki who made this known when delivering his remarks at the Africa Climate Change Summit in Kenya on Tuesday, said in view of these staggering figures and many others, it is clear that there is no relevant global intervention in favor of Africa without a credible solution to the crippling debt challenge.
He said, “African countries therefore face disproportionate burdens and risks arising from unpredictable weather events, including prolonged droughts and devastating floods at all levels. Massive humanitarian crises cause adverse effects on the economy, health, education, peace and security, and other related risks.
“For example, in the 2022/2023 season, around 18 million people were affected by drought in the Horn of Africa alone. Recently, Tropical Cyclone Fred affected more than 1.2 million people and caused the deaths of more than 700 people.
“It is also estimated that between 2019 and 2023, economic losses due to disasters in Africa are between 20 and 35.5 billion US Dollars. This gloomy list is endless. I cannot fail to recall around 600 million Africans are deprived of electricity, while 800 million of them do not have access to a clean kitchen and are therefore exposed to potential respiratory infections due to smoke. .
“Infrastructure is also being challenged by Climate Change and, as you all know, meeting Africa’s infrastructure needs and developing cost-effective infrastructure services requires considerable funding estimated today at around 170 billion dollars per year.
“In this sense, it is encouraging to note that African Governments have devoted around 3.5% of their GDP to infrastructure development over the last 20 years. It’s too little compared to certain emerging countries with incomparable number of mouths to feed. China and India spend 7.7% and 5.2% of GDP on infrastructure, respectively”.
Faki stated that Africa Climate Change Summit offers an excellent opportunity to translate Africa’s climate ambitions into opportunities for practical action consolidation of the voices on the burning issues of Climate Change, ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit and COP28 in United Arab Emirates.
“At these meetings of global importance, Africa must, among other challenges, highlight the worrying and sometimes dramatic situation in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa where droughts and floods alternate, in the Congo River basin with dangerous deforestation.
“And the disastrous consequences of cyclones in southern Africa and island states. It is urgent that Africa comes to all these meetings with concrete proposals to be implemented without delay”.
He reiterated his call to come to these next two meetings with precise proposals, without drowning them in literature and the usual litany, on the imperative of collective justice with regard to Africa whose responsibility is well limited in the pollution of the planet with an inversely proportional share of the volume of global investment in the environment.
“This call for a reestablishment of justice with regard to Africa would benefit from being accompanied by a real reform of the global financial architecture to which a high-level panel is rightly devoted at this summit”, he said.
AU Boss said further that To carry out this fight, which includes financing adaptation (100 billion dollars per year), Africa has brought together its will in its common position through a momentum unifying African voices, particularly in matters of climate change.
“This will obviously be the central point of our agenda within the G20 as soon as we accede. It remains understood, however, that in this great and vast fight, Africa should not be satisfied with incantations, Faki Mahamat disclosed.