East Africa lacks policies to deal with debt crisis

China Roads and Bridges Construction Company engineers erect rail walls on the T-beams across the ocean before putting the Standard Guage Railway (SGR) line to connect the Island and Changamwe mainland, May 24, 2018. [Gideon Maundu/Standard]

Rating firm, Moody’s, has singled out weak policy, poor budget planning and its implementation as factors that have made it difficult for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania address their ballooning debt portfolio.

The agency report indicates that East Africa region is faced with a debt crisis that is weighed down by institutional weakness that limits their ability to create policy solutions.