Africa CDC seeks $1bn health financing model through debt Swaps

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has intensified efforts to unlock an estimated $1 1billion in health financing through debt-for-health swaps as part of a broader strategy to secure sustainable funding for the continent’s health systems.

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The director-general of Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, made this known during a weekly high-level regional press briefing on Thursday.

Mr Kaseya said sustainable financing is now one of the institution’s five strategic pillars, with a focus on mobilising innovative domestic resources and exploring previously underutilised mechanisms such as debt swaps.

“When we talk about sustainable financing, we are looking at increasing innovative domestic resources and also bringing funding that we didn’t explore in the past, like debt swaps,” he said.

According to him, Debt swaps, arrangements in which part of a country’s external debt is forgiven in exchange for domestic investment in agreed development priorities, are increasingly viewed as a tool to ease fiscal pressure while strengthening health security

To drive the initiative, he said that Africa CDC has appointed Christoph Benn as Senior Advisor to the Director-General.

“Benn, a German health financing specialist with over 30 years of global experience, is currently Director of Global Health Diplomacy at the Joep Lange Institute in Geneva,” he said.

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“He previously led resource mobilisation at the Global Fund to Fight AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where he played a key role in securing billions of dollars for infectious disease programmes and advancing innovative financing mechanisms.”

The director-general said Mr Benn is working with Africa CDC’s public financial management and health financing teams to finalise technical support for African Union member states seeking to structure and negotiate debt-for-health swap agreements.

He also referenced discussions with German officials on innovative financing models, citing an example in which $100 million was unlocked to complement government contributions to the Global Fund, bringing total support to $1 billion.

He said that Africa CDC is expected to release an op-ed in the coming days outlining its debt swap strategy and broader sustainable financing agenda.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the push comes at a time when many African countries face mounting debt burdens and shrinking traditional donor support, limiting fiscal space for health investment.

Analysts said debt-for-health swaps could provide a pathway for countries to redirect resources toward disease surveillance, outbreak preparedness, and strengthening primary healthcare without increasing borrowing.

Africa CDC’s financing reform agenda forms part of its wider strategy to strengthen Africa’s health sovereignty and reduce over-reliance on external aid. (NAN)