President William Ruto has renewed calls for reforms in the global financial system at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit where he made new proposals over the mounting debt burden facing the continent.
In a speech delivered by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua on Thursday at the event held in Johannesburg, Kenya pushed to have African debt renegotiated or suspended.
He explained that the global financial system was imbalanced even as many countries in Africa struggle to repay their debts owing to the current state of the global economy which has been hampered with the effects of the global pandemic.
The ballooning debt in the continent has seen some countries such as Ghana default on their debt repayment. Other countries such as Zambia have also been forced to renegotiate their debt which amounted to Ksh912 billion.
"A proposal is for the debt repayments to be renegotiated and suspended for a period of time, say 10, 15 or even 20 years, so the monies that are available are used for development.
"We do not want to keep on borrowing because all the finances we have are tied to debt repayment. We have to break the cycle," read the speech in part.
However, Ruto maintained that the country was committed to fulfilling its obligation to repay the debts.
To further the proposal, a systemic resolution of the developing country debt overhang rather than case-by-case debt default workouts under the G20 Common Framework.
At the event, Ruto also pushed for the adoption of the African Free Trade to boost the economy of the continent and empowered African countries to be financially independent.
Kenya also took the opportunity to push for the inclusion of African countries in the Permanent Seats of the UN Security Council.
There is an urgent need to broaden as well as strengthen the voice and participation of developing countries in decision-making and global economic governance as well.
BRICS is an economic group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE and Ethiopia will be joining the group from next year.
