French banks “play a central role” in the indebtedness of many African states. According to Oxfam, the French banks Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas are contributing to the debt crisis in some

According to a report by the NGO Oxfam France and the Debt and Development Platform published on 12 October 2021, French banks “play a central role” in the indebtedness of many African states, which today mostly use borrowing to finance their development due to lack of own resources and public funding. Faced with an unprecedented situation, namely the increase in extreme poverty “for the first time in more than 20 years in 2020” and social budgets “under tension”, Oxfam France believes that “it is time to force private creditors to join efforts to alleviate the debt of developing countries”. These financial institutions must all the more be called upon during the pandemic by African countries to whom they lent, once again, at exorbitant rates