Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: Zambia agrees to a debt-for-energy swap, U.S. forces withdraw from Nigeria after a joint offensive against the Islamic State, and Morocco’s Atlas Lions carry the hopes of the continent at the World Cup.
Zambia launched the world’s first debt-for-energy swap last month, offering to buy back $1.36 billion of its outstanding 2053 private bonds using a $600 million concessional loan from the African Development Bank. The Zambian government is covering the remaining cost.
A recent surge in copper prices has strengthened Zambia’s economy. In exchange for clearing the debt, the Zambian government agreed to spend its $275 million in interest savings on power networks over 15 years.
So-called debt-for-development deals are not new. The Seychelles implemented the world’s first swap to fund marine conservation in 2015. In 2023, Ecuador conducted the largest-ever debt-for-nature swap aimed at protecting the Galápagos Islands. Last year, Kenya entered into a $1 billion debt-for-food swap with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
