‘Almost all G20 governors represented at Finance Track meeting’

The South African  Reserve Bank Governor, Lesetja Kganyago says almost all the governors from G20 countries were represented at the Finance Track meeting. This week’s talks in Cape Town were overshadowed by US aid cuts and the absence of several key finance chiefs from major economies like the United States, China and Britain.

Disputes over trade, the Ukraine war and how to tackle climate change have long made it hard for the G20 grouping to make serious progress on global challenges.

Kganyago and Finance Minister Minister, Enoch Godongwana briefed the media on the outcome of the meeting of  Finance Ministers and central bankers.

“Shall we say that almost all of the governors were there. All central banks were represented to the extent that (where) there wasn’t a governor, there would have been a deputy governor with full delegated authority. There was no flag that was empty. Every country was represented,” says Kganyago.

Godongwana, Kganyago brief media following B20 and G20 Finance Track meetings:

Meanwhile, former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo says the high levels of debt that many African countries currently have is restricting growth and development.

Obasanjo is part of a group of former heads of state from various African countries, who have signed the Cape Town Declaration on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Track Meetings.

The historic initiative is aimed at tackling the debt crisis among African countries.

The initiative aims to advocate for the reduction, suspension, and elimination of debt and related debt service costs.

Obasanjo says money spent on servicing debt should be used to improve services for Africans instead.

“What it does is that it strangulates development and the money that would have gone to essential areas of human welfare and human development, education, health, and nutrition is given to pay debt that seems to be interminable,” he says.

B20 and G20 Finance Track meetings: Minister Enoch Godongwana