African Development Bank warns members over rising debt

African governments must take urgent steps to ensure they can finance their debt after borrowing heavily in recent years when interest rates were low, the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday.
"Increasingly many African countries, taking advantage of the low global interest rates, have rushed to international capital markets by issuing bonds," Akinwumi Adesina said in a statement.
He said they now faced a challenge with rising interest rates. Africa, which issued Eurobonds amounting to $12 billion last year alone, must leverage sovereign wealth funds, domestic tax revenue, private equity funds and pension funds.
"There is need for urgent measures to ensure macroeconomic stabilisation, fiscal consolidation, broadening the tax base and deepening of domestic capital markets," Adesina said.
"We must also end the illicit capital flows that deny Africa over $60 billion a year."
The AfDB said in a report on Monday that the continent's economy was likely to grow 3.7 percent this year as resilient private consumption and investment offset the effect of a slump in commodity prices and global headwinds