Lula da Silva says IMF should turn Africa’s debt into infrastructure investment

This Friday in Luanda, the President of Brazil said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should convert the debt of African countries into investment in infrastructure, which is still lacking on the continent.

Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is on his first two-day visit to Angola, spoke at the closing of the Angolan-Brazilian Economic Forum, which brought together about five hundred participants.

The Brazilian head of state said that African countries owed the IMF almost $800 billion, asking why financial institutions and the developed world “do not make agreements and turn the debt of this African continent into money for investment in development, and not into money.” paying for it.”

“Doing the work that remains to be done on the African continent, especially on the energy issue, this discussion is what we should do because if we think everything is fine, we will not see that the situation will change,” he emphasized.

The President of Brazil considered that it is “abnormal” when people are born poor and die poor, like their descendants.

“Come and invest in Angola, which was once a country that was usurped and stolen from so many of the diamonds that this country produced. I don’t know how much these diamonds brought money to Angola or brought money to half a dozen smart people,” Lula said. da Silva, also noting the wealth of Angola in gold, oil, gas and agriculture.

The head of state appealed to the need for a better distribution of wealth: “As long as one eats ten times a day, and the other does not eat anything, this will not work, we are creating a poor society.”

He told Angolan businessmen that Brazil had returned to the African continent “for real” and added that the country wanted to fund Angola again, which had been a “good payer” of Brazilian investment.

“Angola has always been a country that assured us that every dollar invested here will be repaid, and it did, because this country is not the result of a drawing of a ruler, this country is the result of a very bloody struggle, not only to win independence, but build a country later,” said Lula da Silva.

The President of Brazil defended the repetition of such forums in all the African countries he visits, because politicians do not know how to discuss investments, they only know how to “open doors”.

Brazil has moved away from Africa, Lula da Silva continued, “due to a lack of long-term vision or a lack of agility, the idea that investments should pay off the next day.”