Ghana among African countries on World Bank's heavily indebted poor countries list

• List of heavily indebted countries by World Bank and IMF
• The objective of the initiative is to ensure that no poor country ever faces the burden of debt.
• African countries dominate the 36 countries on the list.

According to data obtained by Business Insider Africa, there are currently around 34 African countries on the World Bank and IMF's list of heavily indebted countries.

These heavily indebted poor countries include Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros Islands, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Others include: Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

According to Business Insider Africa, the list of heavily indebted countries is a joint initiative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was launched in 1996. According to information sourced from the IMF fact sheet, the initiative aims to ensure that no poorer world country ever faces the burden of debt that it cannot manage.

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This debt relief initiative works in a way that multilateral financial organizations (including the IMF and the World Bank) work in partnership with governments around the world to reduce the external debt of poor countries to sustainable levels. Currently, 33 of the 40 countries on this list are in Africa and have a total population of about 760 million.

However, it is important to note that being poor is not the only eligibility criterion to be included in the list of heavily indebted poor countries. There are several other requirements, including an established track record of the ability to lift themselves out of poverty over time.

Source: YEN.com.gh