The upcoming G20 Summit in November is the first G20 Summit to be held on the African continent. This historical event marks the continent’s growing role in governance and focuses on the theme Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability. In today’s podcast ERSA’s host sits down with Olawunmi Ola-Basuri, the Political Impact Manager at ONE Campaign and Richmond Commodore, a Senior Economist at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), to demystify the cost of capital in Africa, and how it impacts Africa’s future. Across the continent, countries are paying some of the highest borrowing costs in the world. What is underneath this? Is it about fundamentals like inflation and debt, or are perception, bias, and global financial structures playing a bigger role? What does this mean for governments’ ability to invest in health, education and climate infrastructure? And what are the opportunities for positive Africa-reform in the G20 space? To learn about the effectiveness of the G20’s Debt Service Suspension initiative (DSSI) and Common Framework, in Africa, and how the long term low cost borrowing landscape has evolved, as well as how the cost of capital impacts the everyday lives of people, we recommend giving this podcast a listen. Both Olawunmi and Richmond have some powerful statistics, to give context to the true cost of capital.
