Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila says the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP) is pushing for total debt cancellation by creditor-nations.
Gbajabiamila stated this on day two of the ongoing maiden CoSAP in Abuja. He explained that the body would want all debts owed by African countries cancelled, adding that this would help the countries to start from “reset the button to zero.” This means that they had no debts outstanding against them.
Gbajabiamila said compared to debt review or relief, in the case of the latter, the debts would still be outstanding, except that there would be some alterations.
Others, he said, would include some adjustments or even postponement of the repayment schedules, adding that “we want to reset our buttons to read zero, and appealed to African countries to support this push.
Read also: Buhari seeks debt cancellation at UN General Assembly
Gbajabiamila’s also spoke on the need for parliaments to step up their oversight duties in tracking how the executive spent the loans taken on behalf of countries. This, he said, usually ends as debt burdens or traps.
The speaker also emphasised the need for African countries to set aside a percentage of the health budget for vaccine research and manufacturing by African nations. He said this could also be legislated upon to make compliance mandatory, while recommending the establishment of an African Centre for Vaccine Research and Production.
He explained that the joint centre could be located anywhere on the continent, where all African countries could contribute to its development.
The debt of low-and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa increased to a record $702 billion in 2020, according to a new World Bank report released October 11, 2021.
This, the bank said, is the region’s highest debt burden in a decade.
