 |
| African flags at the headquarters of AfDB in Abidjan, Ivory Coast |
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thirty-four African countries are currently on World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) list.
Information on the World Bank’s website data.worldbank.org, listed the affected countries as follows: Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros Islands, Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo.
Others were 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.
In a businessinsider.com report sighted by GhanaWeb, information obtained from the IMF fact sheet states that the HIPC initiative aims 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,” the report stated.
“It is, however, important to note that being poor is not the only eligibility criteria for being admitted on the heavily indebted poor countries’ list. There are a number of other requirements, including an established track record of the capability to grow out of poverty over time,” the report added.
The heavily indebted poor countries’ list is a joint initiative by the World Bank and the IMF which was launched in 1996. — NNN-AGENCIES
