While the impact of a global pandemic and geopolitical disturbances cannot be completely dismissed in diagnosing Africa’s rising debt crises, it is essential to recognize that these occurrences have only compounded preexisting issues. At the heart of Africa’s fiscal woes lie chronic fiscal indiscipline that festers a thirst for reckless borrowing. The compendium of external shocks has, in many ways, only exacerbated these underlying issues, revealing the fragility of fiscal systems ill-prepared to weather such storms.

As a continent that relies heavily on extractive revenues, this context erodes government revenue take and economic linkage opportunities from Africa’s vast natural resource endowments, thereby prolonging the economic recovery curves for many resource-rich developing countries. The ultimate victims of imprudent natural resource management and fiscal recklessness are ordinary citizens who would otherwise have benefited from essential extractives revenue-funded amenities and the right to dignified livelihoods.

The foregoing underscores the immense significance of the role of ACEP as a watchdog over government’s business and decisions in Africa’s energy and extractives sector.