The Coordinating Secretary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Department of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue and Dialogue with the Secular World says a joint call by faith leaders in Africa carries more weight in advocating for debt cancelation.

In a conversation with the SACBC communication office about the recently ended workshop for African faith leaders ahead of the 2025 Jubilee Year, Fr Bonaventure Mashata MAfr described the workshop as an opportunity for the Catholic church and other faith-based religious leaders to rally behind Pope Francis’ call to wealthy nations to cancel or reduce debt owed by countries in the global south.

Religious leaders representing the Catholic Church, Muslims, national councils of churches, the Anglican, Lutheran, as well as interreligious councils across 13 countries in Africa and regional religious organizations met in Kigali, Rwanda to “take the opportunity of the Jubilee year’s promise of renewal and hope” to “appeal to global leaders meeting in the G20, G7, United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank” to consider debt forgiveness for African countries.

“There were Muslims from Kenya, from Nigeria, there were Methodist, Anglican, we had a woman Bishop – It was quite interesting… We realized that we cannot just advocate alone as Catholics, as Anglicans, or Muslims, we realized that when faith leaders come together we could add more weight,” said Fr Mashata MAfr.

In a July 19 joint statement, African faith leaders say, “a new debt Jubilee” is urgently needed “to bring hope to humankind and to bring the planet back from the brink of becoming uninhabitable.”

“Our countries in particular face again agonizing choices between spending and investing in their people and paying their creditors. This year alone, Africa will spend $90 billion servicing public debt. Yet, the average African country’s combined spending on health, education, and social protection is two-thirds of their debt payments,” said the faith leaders in their statement addressed to the G20, G7, United Nations, IMF, and World Bank.