(Business Insider) There are currently about 34 African countries on the World Bank and IMF’s heavily indebted countries’ list, according to data obtained by Business Insider Africa.
Among these heavily indebted poor countries are Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros Islands, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Republic of Congo. Others include Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome, and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
The heavily indebted poor countries’ list is a joint initiative by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was launched in 1996. According to information obtained from the IMF fact sheet, the aim of the initiative is to ensure that no poor country in the world ever faces a debt burden it cannot manage.
This debt relief initiative works in such a way that multilateral financial organisations (including the IMF and the World Bank) work in partnership with governments across the world to lower external debts of impoverished countries to sustainable levels. Out of the 40 countries that are currently on this list, 33 are in Africa and they have a combined population of about 760 million people.