Many African governments continue to face heavy debt obligations to private bondholders, bilateral lenders such as China, and multilateral institutions, including the IMF, World Bank, and African Development Bank Seven African countries have successfully exited IMF borrowing programmes through repayments, while three have never borrowed from the institution due to various reasons Economists note that clearing IMF debt can nonetheless provide governments with greater policy flexibility by reducing exposure to IMF conditionalities such as austerity measures, tax increases and subsidy cuts.
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Many African governments continue to face substantial obligations to debtors. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaking at the Bretton Woods Committee Spring Summit.
These include private bondholders; bilateral lenders such as China; and international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Notably, a growing number of African countries have achieved the milestone of fully repaying their debts to the IMF, demonstrating a shift toward improved fiscal discipline, debt consolidation, and reduced reliance on external financing. Countries notably absent from the debtor list include Nigeria, Libya, Eritrea, Botswana, Mozambique, Algeria, Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini. Although Mauritius, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean, is not included in the IMF's latest data on outstanding credits, it owes about 217.99 million SDRs and is currently classified as having a high risk of sovereign stress due to these elevated post-pandemic debt levels. Mauritius has been undergoing fiscal management engagements with the IMF, and most recently, the IMF staff completed the 2026 Article IV mission.