Ethiopian authorities have not joined the initial group of governments endorsing a new United Nations-backed platform designed to support borrowing nations, even as the country navigates complex ongoing debt-restructuring negotiations with bilateral and commercial creditors.
Penelope Hawkins, officer-in-charge of debt and development finance at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), disclosed that the first nine endorsers include five African nations: the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, and Sudan. Hawkins announced the membership figures during the sixth African Conference on Debt and Development in Nairobi, urging additional developing economies to join the initiative before its inaugural Governing Council meeting scheduled for October.
Neither the Ministry of Finance nor the National Bank of Ethiopia has publicly clarified whether the government has formally declined participation, is evaluating the membership criteria, or intends to endorse the platform ahead of the October meetings. UNCTAD has not published a consolidated public roster of the nine endorsing governments, leaving Hawkins’ statements at the Nairobi conference as the primary source for the current membership status.
The development coincides with Ethiopia’s progress through one of the most closely watched sovereign-debt restructuring processes on the continent. The administration previously secured an agreement with official bilateral creditors to restructure approximately 8.4 billion US dollars in external debt under the G20 Common Framework. That arrangement is projected to yield roughly 2.5 billion US dollars in debt-service relief throughout the duration of Ethiopia’s ongoing macroeconomic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Concurrently, authorities are working to finalize the restructuring of a defaulted 1 billion US dollar Eurobond. Ethiopia defaulted on the instrument in December 2023 after missing a coupon payment ahead of its final maturity in December 2024. A preliminary agreement struck with major bondholders proposes replacing the defaulted security with a new 880 million US dollar bond carrying an interest rate of 6.15 percent, with principal repayments structured through July 2029. Under the tentative terms, the government would also disburse approximately 99.4 million US dollars in accrued unpaid interest alongside a consent fee for participating bondholders.
While Ethiopia’s Official Creditor Committee—co-chaired by China and France—approved the broad commercial restructuring parameters, the committee cautioned that a proposed “New Money Warrant” could potentially grant bondholders more favorable terms than official bilateral lenders. The warrant mechanism would give investors the option to purchase up to 1 billion US dollars in future Ethiopian debt at market-linked rates, with an alternative cash settlement option capped at 90 million US dollars. Final implementation remains contingent upon formal approval from the bondholder base. Ethiopia remains the sole nation actively completing its debt overhaul through the G20 Common Framework architecture.
The UN Borrowers’ Platform was formally unveiled on April 15, 2026, during the IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington. Operating under UNCTAD secretariat support, the initiative is structured to provide developing countries with a permanent forum for information sharing, negotiation strategy coordination, and technical capacity building. Membership is entirely voluntary and open to developing UN member states that are net borrowers and not full participants in traditional creditor forums like the Paris Club, a criteria estimated to fit over 120 countries.
The platform is explicitly designed not to conduct collective debt negotiations or supersede country-level talks with creditors. Instead, its primary mandate is to mitigate the institutional and informational asymmetries that routinely disadvantage sovereign borrowers when facing organized creditor syndicates. Governments joining the initiative are expected to issue high-level policy statements backing its goals, designate technical officials for its programs, and participate in the upcoming October Governing Council summit
While joining the forum would not alter the legal or financial parameters of Ethiopia’s existing debt agreements, participation could grant officials access to technical resources and comparative insights from other emerging economies navigating complex negotiations with commercial banks, bondholders, and official lenders. As of press time, the Ministry of Finance has yet to signal whether it will seek membership before the platform convenes its leadership in October.
