The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Thursday met with speakers of parliaments in other African countries to discuss ways to seek from external debts.
Gbajabiamila, made the meeting known on his verified Twitter handle, @FemiGbaja, on Thursday night.
He tweeted, “Today, I engaged with my colleagues from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa to discuss how African speakers can collaborate in the joint task of loosening the stranglehold of foreign debt on our economies, a precursor to hosting the 2021 Conference of African Speakers in Abuja.”
Gbajabiamila had earlier on August 17, 2020, convened a similar meeting where it was agreed that there was an urgent need to push for debt cancellation for the continent from their multilateral and bilateral partners.
The Speaker’s initiative to establish the Conference of African Speakers and Heads of Parliament, a body that will facilitate increased collaboration between speakers, heads of parliament and national assemblies across Africa, also got a boost at the meeting.
A statement issued by Special Adviser to the Speaker on Media and Publicity, Mr Lanre Lasisi, had said the African Speakers would also seek to advance the African development agenda within and outside the continent in conjunction with both the executive arms of government as well as African regional institutions.
Gbajabiamila had at the previous meeting stated the urgent need to join local and global efforts to push for the cancellation of the external debt owed by various countries on the continent.