Africa’s development ambitions continue to outpace available domestic resources, making sovereign borrowing an unavoidable instrument of fiscal policy. The policy problem is not borrowing per se; it is weak debt governance. Across many African countries, rising debt-service costs, fragmented debt management operations and records, limited public disclosure, and weak links between borrowing and measurable development results have combined to shrink fiscal space and erode trust in public institutions.
When citizens, investors, legislatures, and development partners cannot clearly see what has been borrowed, on what terms, for which projects, and with what results, debt quickly shifts from a development tool into a source of suspicion and macro-fiscal vulnerability. The result is a widening credibility gap: governments need debt to finance transformation, but weak governance around debt reduces public confidence in the very institutions responsible for that transformation.
AAAG proposes to advocate for a five-part reform agenda that moves sovereign debt management from a narrow treasury function to a visible pillar of trust-building and development governance.