Statement on the meeting of African Leaders, the African Union and African Organisations held on the margins of the G20 Leaders Summit

President Cyril Ramaphosa met today, Friday 21 November 2025, with African Heads of State and Government, the African Union (AU), and African organisations, on the margins of the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit, to further reaffirm South Africa’s commitment to advancing Africa’s development priorities within the framework of the G20, and to enhance and strengthen regional, multilateral and international cooperation and partnership.

African leaders congratulated South Africa for its successful steering of an historic G20 Presidency, the first on the African continent, under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.” This theme is consistent with the spirit of the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which emphasises the interconnectedness of individuals within a broader communal, societal, and environmental context.

President Ramaphosa reaffirmed the G20’s renewed commitment, expressed during South Africa’s Presidency, to its partnership with Africa within the strategic framework of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and its emphasis on the importance of economic growth, jobs and prosperity, including the key role of private sector investment in unlocking the economic potential of the continent. 

The meeting discussed the four high-level priorities that anchored the work of South Africa’s G20 Presidency, namely:

•⁠  ⁠Strengthening disaster resilience and response;
•⁠  ⁠Ensuring debt sustainability for low-income countries;
•⁠  ⁠Mobilising finance for a just energy transition; and
•⁠  ⁠Harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

African leaders welcomed the initiatives introduced during South Africa’s G20 Presidency in support of Africa’s aspirations for sustainable growth, resilience, and global partnership. These include the AI Initiative for Africa; the Ubuntu Principles on Food Security, Nutrition and Price Volatility; the G20 Africa Cooperation Agenda on Trade and Investment, which seeks to mobilise G20 support for Africa’s economic integration and investment in its productive sectors and infrastructure; and the broadened Compact with Africa. 

They further welcomed the G20 Africa Engagement Framework agreed under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, which comprises a medium-term framework, spanning from its launch to the end of 2030, for G20 Finance Track engagement with and support to African countries and the African continent. This will ensure that the issues of greatest importance to Africa remain on the G20 agenda for discussion and action.

President Ramaphosa highlighted the rising debt burden on African countries as an issue that requires action by the international community. The President expressed deep concern that over 3.4 billion people now live in countries spending more on interest payments than on health or education. African leaders stressed the urgent need for coordinated action to address the immediate burden of high debt service costs and confront the root causes of recurring debt crises, and expressed strong support for the G20 Ministerial Declaration on Debt Sustainability, which clearly articulates the importance of this challenge and provides a basis for further concrete action to be taken. The meeting committed to advance these and other objectives outlined in the Lomé Declaration on Debt and the Common African Position on Debt.

African leaders supported the creation of a global Borrowers Platform to strengthen technical cooperation and amplify borrower voices, with a UN entity as its secretariat. The establishment of the platform will improve the governance and operation of the global debt architecture. African leaders committed to working together in a spirit of cooperation to establish the Borrowers’ Platform over the next year, and welcomed South Africa’s offer to convene the inaugural meeting of the platform in 2026.

The Africa Expert Panel, chaired by former Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, presented its report to African leaders, who welcomed its proposals. The report puts forward simple, straightforward actions to accelerate investment in Africa, including disclosing project-level financial data to reduce investment costs; making simple adjustments to global banking regulations to unlock more finance for infrastructure and development; ensuring that the methods of credit rating agencies are sound, their sources fully disclosed, and their actions subject to regulatory oversight; and strengthening debt transparency and ensuring that creditors participate in reconciling debt data. President Ramaphosa committed to take the proposals of the panel forward not only in the G20 but in other international fora, working closely with the African Union and other partners. 

African leaders further welcomed the Report of the G20 Extraordinary Committee on Global Inequality which was commissioned under South Africa’s G20 Presidency and supported the Committee’s proposal to create a permanent International Panel on Inequality which will provide policymakers, the private sector, and the public with authoritative assessments on inequality, and.ensure that inequality continues to be discussed by leaders as in the G20 and other multilateral fora. 

African leaders commended South Africa’s G20 Presidency for convening outreach meetings in the continent, including the G20 High Level Dialogue on Debt Sustainability, the Cost of Capital and the Reform of the International Financial Architecture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Food Security in Cairo, Egypt, and the meeting on Industrialisation and Agriculture in Abuja, Nigeria. 

The meeting reaffirmed the determination of African leaders and organisations to work collectively with the G20, international institutions, and partners to accelerate Africa’s transformation, strengthen resilience, and unlock the continent’s full potential for inclusive and sustainable development.


Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria