Entrepreneurship

Home page

Entrepreneurship

UN Special Envoy: Incorrect risk assessment increases debt burden in developing countries

16 June 2026 13:15 (UTC +04:00)

Many developing countries borrow at higher interest rates due to unfair financial assessments, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Mahmoud Mohieldin said at the session titled “8th SDG Dialogue: Innovative Financing for Sustainable Development – Beyond Aid and Traditional Official Development Assistance (ODA)” held within the framework of the Islamic Development Bank Annual Meetings in Baku, APA-Economics reports.

According to him, for this reason, the debt problem remains one of the major challenges.

“Although the actual default risk of African countries is less than 3.5%, they are required to pay interest rates of 13–14% or even higher. This demonstrates a mispricing of risk within the system and is one of the main causes of debt accumulation. In infrastructure financing, external financing still dominates, while the private sector’s share stands at only 11%. This situation must change,” he noted.

Mahmoud Mohieldin United Nations UN Special Envoy developing countries debt burden risk assessment financial markets borrowing costs interest rates Africa infrastructure financing private sector sustainable development SDG Dialogue Official Development Assistance ODA Islamic Development Bank IsDB Annual Meetings Baku global finance debt sustainability