Maputo — African Finance Ministers still do not know exactly how much of the continent's foreign debt is to be cancelled under the deal announced in July at the summit in Scotland of the G8 group of most industrialised nations.

Meeting in Tunis earlier this week, the African Ministers welcomed the debt cancellation initiative, but expressed concern that they still did not know how it would be implemented.

According to the final communique from the meeting, received by AIM on Friday, the ministers pointed out that "the choice of cut-off and implementation dates and the coverage of debt obligations falling due needed to be clarified" The G8 initiative speaks of "100 per cent" cancellation of debts owed to the main multilateral institutions (the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank). But 100 per cent of debts contracted up until when ? That cut off date could make a huge difference to the real sums involved. And when will the relief take effect ? In the next financial year ? Or later ?

The African ministers took the common sense option and called for a cut-off date of December 2004, and an implementation date of 1 January 2006.

They also "called on donor countries not to impose additional conditionalities, and to ensure that the coverage of the multilateral debt initiative does indeed lead to a 100 percent cancellation of debt outstanding and disbursed".

They also welcomed the G8 pledge for a doubling of Overseas Development Aid, and suggested that these extra resources "should be predictable and prioritized for projects recommended within the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) project pipeline".

They also warned that such additional funds "should not be offset against other initiatives, like technical assistance, humanitarian assistance and debt relief".

The Ministers also promised that Africa will put its own house in order. The communique says they "committed themselves to improving systems of transparency and accountability in the use and management of public funds".

They "stressed the need for countries to strengthen their planning functions to create a platform for effective development of key projects", and "underlined the necessity to improve implementation capacity, and maintain a sound enabling environment to attract both domestic and foreign private investment into infrastructure development". The Finance Ministers wanted "better coordination at the country and regional levels to ensure that priority projects and programs are identified, implemented and maintained".

Rocketing oil prices cast a lengthy shadow over the meeting.

The Ministers warned that "as a result of soaring oil prices, oil-importing African countries are facing balance of payments problems, rising deficits, higher inflation, increased energy and transport costs, and difficulties in economic management." They called on the multilateral financial bodies "to extend support to oil-importing countries to meet unanticipated financing needs stemming from higher oil prices". The Ministers also urged oil companies "to use part of their windfall gains from the higher price of oil to make voluntary contributions to an oil fund to help African countries absorb the shock and support African development efforts".

But the ministers also recognised that high oil prices are here to stay, and that African countries should adjust their economies accordingly notably by developing hydropower and other renewable sources of energy, and improving energy efficiency.