Kenya’s President William Ruto revisited his familiar call for world leaders to see Africa as a partner, not a beggar, in renewed global engagement.
President Ruto was attending the G7 Summit in Évian, France, where he had been invited to speak about Africa’s concerns on the world stage.
He challenged the world to rethink its perception of African countries, saying the continent has vast potential and needs genuine support to flourish.
“We must sort out the issue of access to concessional resources to unlock the potential of Africa. Africa continues to borrow from the international community at significantly high interest rates, even higher than comparable economies in the world. We must deal with a mispriced Africa,” President Ruto said.
According to the Kenyan leader, the lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC), among others were being unfair to the African countries by exaggerating the risks in the continent, hence undermining the opportunities and the potential of growth.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Kenya's President William Ruto interact as they arrive for a working session with G7 leaders and outreach partners on promoting economic growth during the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 17, 2026.
He spoke hours before the G7 leaders endorsed a ‘declaration on mutually beneficial international partnerships’, a document that identifies debt reform as priority.
“We recognise the need to update the current international development system to ensure it fully meets the needs of future generations and current challenges,” said the document that was also endorsed by invited guests Kenya and South Korea.
“We will also continue our efforts to strengthen the global debt architecture, notably by calling for greater transparency in debt data and lending practices among all stakeholders.”
“We aim to address the fragmentation of the development system and to improve its efficiency and effectiveness also by strengthening coordination and collaboration among all development actors.”
Debt reform has been a part of Ruto’s speeches lately, abroad. He has argued that Africa is unfairly judged on risk and charged heavily on interest to secure credit. The impact of that, he has argued, is that Africans are perennially paying loans instead of utilising the monies to develop.
But the G7, which is a geopolitical grouping of the world’s biggest economies: US, UK, France, Japan, Italy, Canada and Germany. It also includes the European Union. In the past, it had spoken of debt reforms. At the last Summit in Kananaskis in Canada in 2025, the G7 leaders said stronger protections in debt contracts and more comprehensive relief mechanisms for vulnerable countries are crucial to protect vulnerable countries. Leaders proposed that new lending considers repayment breaks for countries hurt by climatic disasters to allow them to recover.
“Improving debt contracts helps protect vulnerable countries facing crises,” they said then.
“Historically, the G7 has led the largest global debt relief initiative since the late 1990s and we need the G7 to enact more comprehensive debt solutions urgently.”
Canada is one of the countries that started inserting such clauses in lending contracts. Other members of the G7 haven’t and China, another of the biggest lenders globally, is not a member of the G7.
This year, the G7 was gathering on Tuesday against the backdrop of crises that have been reported across the continents, ranging from the fuel shortages, US/Israel-Iran war, Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the war in Sudan, as well as the Ebola outbreak, among other fundamental issues.
Although Kenya is not a G7 nation, the host, French President Emmanuel Macron, extended an invitation to President Ruto to represent the African continent.
Upon arrival, the Kenyan leader stated that Africa would not shy away from articulating the injustices it has faced in the current formation of the United Nations, nor the subsequent challenges it has encountered with international financial institutions.
“There are mechanisms that we can de-risk whatever that people think is a risk in Africa. There are African multilateral financial institutions that we are building, that can act as guarantor for us to access such resources.”
Ruto has spoken of climate change as a big challenge hurting African countries and links natural disasters and heavy debt to the continual economic turmoil in Africa. He also spoke of UN reforms.
The declaration said the leaders recognise the centrality of the UN in sustaining global relations but admitted it should be reformed.
“We recognise the value of the United Nations system as a development actor and encourage reform, including through the UN80 agenda.”
The leaders also pledged support for responses to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, as well as to channel support for research and medical response to Cancer.
