African nations collectively hold over $1 trillion in sovereign debt, with several countries struggling to keep up with payments, according to a United Nations agency official.

Executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, highlighted the continent’s challenges in financing, security, and climate change during a regional meeting of the Southern African Development Community at Zimbabwe’s Parliament.

“This is also happening when long term concessional finance, official development assistance and foreign direct investments are declining.”

He noted that this strain is exacerbated by a decline in long-term concessional financing, official development assistance, and foreign direct investments.

Countries like Ghana and Zambia have recently secured deals with dollar bondholders after prolonged negotiations under the Group of 20’s Common Framework.

Ethiopia is also set to resume talks with its bondholders soon, following a significant agreement with the IMF last month.

Mr Gatete pointed out that climate change is further compounding Africa’s economic woes, eroding an average of 5% of the continent’s GDP annually. Mozambique alone lost 15% of its GDP to climate impacts last year.

He emphasized the need for reform in the global financial architecture to ensure Africa's needs are considered, expressing concerns that multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund do not adequately address the continent's challenges.

“That is is why we are working on an African position to reform of the global financial architecture so that Africa’s needs are taken into account,” he said, referring to concerns that the continent is not treated fairly by multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.