According to a note from the office of the head of state of Nigeria, the largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, Buhari advocated "purely and simply debt cancellation" to help the member countries of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries to deal with the covid-19 pandemic.
Buhari's statement was made during his speech at the movement's summit, which brings together 120 countries and international organizations, and which was convened by Azerbaijan's head of state, the incumbent presidency, to discuss the impact of covid-19.
Nigeria is one of the most indebted African countries and, like Angola, is facing an economic shock due to lower oil prices and a health shock due to the need to invest in health systems to contain covid-19.
According to the Bloomberg financial information agency, almost half of Nigeria's public debt is owed to multilateral creditors, with the World Bank standing out with 10 billion dollars, China's Export and Import Bank with 3.2 billion dollars, while commercial market debt securities (Eurobonds) amount to almost 11 billion dollars, representing around 40 percent of total foreign debt.
The Nigerian President's statement goes further than the country's position in April, when the Finance Minister had advocated a temporary suspension of payments to multilateral and bilateral creditors to combat the spread of the pandemic in the continent's most populous country.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund announced the delivery of 3.4 billion dollars in emergency funding to support Nigeria's health system in the fight against covid-19.
The Non-Aligned Countries Movement met this Monday via videoconference at a summit convened by Azerbaijan's head of state, Ilham Aliyev, who currently chairs the organisation, to discuss the new coronavirus pandemic.
In announcing the convening of the summit on 25 April, Aliyev expressed the hope that the movement will take important decisions for the mobilization of member states in the fight against the coronavirus, the strengthening of solidarity and multilateralism.
The Non-Aligned Movement was created in 1955 following a meeting of the Asia-Africa Conference then held in Bandung, Indonesia and initially brought together 24 countries to discuss common concerns and coordinate positions at a time when several processes of independence of the colonizing powers were beginning.
