Togo is hosting the first African Union Conference on Public Debt, starting Monday, May 12, 2025, with the goal of creating a new African debt architecture. The summit’s opening featured speeches from leaders including Togo’s President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, and former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama.
President Gnassingbé called for a shift from obsolete and counterproductive analytical frameworks that impose austerity on African countries, hindering their development. He advocated for a logic of trust over surveillance, envisioning debt as a tool for development rather than a budgetary constraint, and emphasized the need to integrate security, climate adaptation, and human development into debt sustainability considerations. Gnassingbé also highlighted that financing Africa is an investment in global stability and a shared responsibility, not charity.
Read more: No competitive politics left in Bangladesh, says Nobel laureate Yunus
John Dramani Mahama stressed that debt must serve the people through parliamentary oversight and open systems, with loans tied to high-impact projects. Togo’s Minister of Economy, Essowè Georges Barcola, argued for a contextualized understanding of African states’ economic realities beyond simple ratios.
The conference, supported by the African Union Commission and the ECA, aims to produce a “Lomé Declaration” to lay the groundwork for a new African debt governance.
