African Debt
Debt is an important source of financing for development, but it needs to be sustainable. African debt has been growing significantly over the past decade.
Explore how much external debt African countries hold, who it is owed to, and how much debt servicing costs countries each year. Data is from the World Bank’s International Debt Statistics.
- Text by
- Data visualisations by
Key numbers
- 20 low-income countries in Africa are in, or at risk of, debt distress (57% of assessed countries)
- African countries owe US$655.6 billion to external creditors as of 2022
- African countries will pay US$89.4 billion in external debt service in 2024
- External debt owed by African countries is equivalent to 22.4% of their combined GDP in 2022
How much do African countries owe?
Africa’s debt is at its highest level in over a decade. As a result of COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and soaring inflation, African countries have had to take on even more debt, and now 20 low income African countries are either bankrupt or at high risk of debt distress.
Total external debt owed by African countries
Africa’s debt stocks have grown significantly in the past decade.
This chart shows how much is owed to each creditor type and how it has changed over time. It is based on public and publicly guaranteed long-term external debt outstanding and disbursed in USD billion (current prices).
The chart is based on the latest International Debt Statistics data (December 2023) and does not reflect any rescheduling or restructuring that may have taken place in 2023.
Who owns African debt?
The composition of African debt has changed significantly. Previously, the majority of African external debt was owed to official creditors – high-income countries and multilateral lenders like the World Bank and IMF. Now, China and private creditors make up a large proportion of debt stocks, meaning more debt is non-concessional.
How much debt is owed to whom?
This chart shows the main creditors for each grouping of public debt – private, multilateral, or bilateral. More than 43% of African external debt is owed to private creditors, 23% to bilateral creditors, and 34% to multilateral creditors.
Select a country to view and hover over the chart for more details.
China now owns a large proportion of African debt
China has become Africa’s biggest bilateral lender. It’s public lenders hold almost $63 billion of Africa’s external debt in 2022, and it’s private lenders over $24 billion of Africa’s external debt.
Select a country to view and hover over the chart for more details.
African debt service
African external debt service payments have increased substantially in the past decade, in part due to higher interest payments on private loans.
African countries are set to pay record amounts in debt service in the coming years
This chart shows yearly external debt service owed to bilateral, multilateral, and private creditors.
Debt service is interest plus principal payments on public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) debt, in USD million (current prices).
The chart does not reflect any rescheduling or restructuring that may have taken place since December 2022.