Loans backed by natural resources are toxic - AfDB president warns

President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has called on African countries to put an end to loan schemes which are backed by natural resources.

According to him, these loan schemes have proven to be non-transparent, unfair and corruptible, a situation he further described as toxic.

In a tweet posted on June 25, the AfDB president cautioned that African countries engaging in such schemes could be saddled with complicated debt resolution, resulting in the mortgaging of their future and natural resources.

“Loans backed by natural resources (oil, gas, minerals) are toxic. They are non-transparent, unfair, corruptible, complicate debt resolution, and mortgage the future of countries. Africa must end all natural resources-backed loans,” he wrote via Twitter after the just concluded Summit for New Global Financing Pact held in France.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was in attendance at the summit.

See Dr Adesina's tweet below:

Loans backed by natural resources (oil, gas, minerals) are toxic. They are non-transparent, unfair, corruptible, complicate debt resolution, and mortgage the future of countries. Africa must end all natural resources-backed loans. ⁦@EmmanuelMacron⁩ ⁦⁦@SecYellen⁩ pic.twitter.com/k3mgT26Dae

— Akinwumi A. Adesina (@akin_adesina) June 25, 2023