African nations collectively owe $38.6 billion outstanding debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF, representing 31.5 percent of the global total, according to Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Egypt leads the continent with $6.86 billion in outstanding IMF credit under an Extended Fund Facility program.
Kenya ranks third with $ 2.85 billion in outstanding loans after its multi-year IMF program collapsed in early 2025.
Speaking at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, Georgieva described the continent as “the future” and “where the world will acquire its next growth engine.”
She urged African governments to reduce dependence on debt financing, attract greater flows of global capital, and advance economic integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“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,” she told the summit.
She said countries that are absent from the debtor list include Nigeria, Libya, Eritrea, Botswana, Mozambique, Algeria, Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini.
“Their circumstances differ, but factors such as fiscal policies, political considerations and access to alternative sources of revenue have played a role in their ability to operate without relying on IMF financing,” she added
For some, natural resource wealth has provided an important source of government revenue, while others have maintained positions that have kept them outside the IMF’s lending framework and associated economic reform conditions, according to the managing director.
MG/as/APA