Private finance essential to avoid new African debt trap

Delegates and speakers from across the continent responded with a combination of caution and optimism to the challenge posed by the Egyptian government’s Africa 2016 conference on 20 February to “accelerate private sector engagement and investment within Africa”. Following an opening address by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, African Development Bank president Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina said that while African economies had proved resilient, the amount of foreign currency-denominated debt was a potential problem. “Africa must not fall into a debt trap,” he said, urging fiscal consolidation, the broadening of export markets within the continent and mobilising domestic reserves to finance projects.