Borrowing costs have surged for businesses and governments in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa in the last five years, according to a new report by Moody’s. The credit rating agency put the rise down to policy weaknesses, market constraints, and inflation, Reuters noted.
High borrowing costs, a problem across much of the continent, leave less room for investment in education, health, and social services, while eroding funds required to build infrastructure needed to stimulate economic growth.
Last month Bloomberg reported that Nigerian companies were increasingly opting to issue short-term debt to avoid locking in high borrowing costs. In a June blog post for the Institute of Economic Affairs, a Kenyan think tank, a researcher wrote that “aggressive tightening of monetary policy” in recent months was limiting access to credit and capital in the private sector, in turn reducing investment into key sectors such as manufacturing.
