From Adewale Sanyaolu, New York
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday called for outright debt cancellation for countries facing the most severe challenges.
Buhari stated this in his statement at the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 77) holding in New York, United States of America.
Though, he did not single out Nigeria in the debt forgiveness plea, available fstatistics put Nigeria’s external debt at $39.69 billion as of March 2022.
The Nigerian leader explained that the multifaceted challenges facing most developing countries have placed a debilitating chokehold on their fiscal space.
This, he said, equally calls for an urgent need to address the burden of unsustainable external debt through a global commitment to the expansion and extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative to countries facing fiscal and liquidity challenges.
On energy transition, he tasked global leaders and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) on the need to make funding and technology available to achieve energy transition success.
As a first step, he said every stakeholder must all commit to releasing the financing and the technology to create a stable and affordable framework for energy transition.
Buhari added that Development Financial Institutions must prioritise de-risking energy projects to improve credit access to renewable projects, adding that there should be no countries “left behind” in this equation.
The President explained that at the Cop 26 in Glasgow last year, he did say that Nigeria was not asking for permission to make the same mistakes that others have made in creating the climate emergency.
Fortunately, he said Nigeria now knows what it can do to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis and the related energy challenge.
He maintained that sky-rocketing energy costs worldwide are, in part, the product of conflict and supply disruptions to Europe and the Americas.
‘’Yet, we are all paying the price. It is, therefore, our expectation that this UNGA 77 and the upcoming COP 27 will help galvanise the political will required to drive action towards the fulfilment of the various existing climate change initiatives.”