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Ottawa, September 22, 2004
2004-055

Canada Cancels All Debt Owed by Three African Nations

Minister of Finance Ralph Goodale today announced the cancellation of all debt owed to Canada by Senegal, Ghana and Ethiopia.

"Excessive debt is one of the heaviest burdens to economic growth for African nations," said Minister Goodale. "The relief provided today will enable these countries to spend more on priorities such as health and education, rather than debt payments."

The three countries will receive total debt relief of nearly $9 million as a result of the debt elimination. They join Tanzania, Benin, Guyana and Bolivia as countries whose debts to Canada have been forgiven since December 2000 under the Canadian Debt Initiative (CDI). Five other African countries—Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Rwanda and Zambia—as well as Honduras have had their debt payments frozen under the CDI.

In all, more than $1.1 billion in debts will be forgiven through the CDI. The CDI complements the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, a comprehensive multilateral debt reduction strategy that allows all debt owing to Canada and other countries to be officially written off as countries complete the HIPC process, as these countries have now done. Canada was the first creditor country to call for forgiveness of all bilateral debt owed by countries eligible for the HIPC program.

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