Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has called for the possibility of ensuring debt cancellation for African countries, as against debt review or relief, IgbereTV reports
Gbajabiamila made this call on Tuesday in Abuja while briefing reporters on the sidelines of a two-day conference by the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP) held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
According to him, the Conference agreed to pursue debt forgiveness for the continent from creditor-nations.
“We talked about debt cancellation and debt forgiveness. We felt parliament should be involved and speak as one voice and speak to our creditors and make a case as to why we needed debt forgiveness,” he said.
“We also agreed that in doing so, we are going to push for a tripartite agreement between the creditors, the executive other governments, and the legislators, the reason being that even if your debt is forgiven and funds are freed up to be diverted in other areas like health, education, your creditors will need to assure that the institution that is responsible for appropriation is involved and that is the case we are making.
“CoSAP as an institution has made commitments, even signed commitments within ourselves and ready to commit to the creditors that we would follow the money.”
Rt. Hon. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, presided over the meeting
