Ruto wants $500bn credit line for weak economies

President Ruto wants $500bn credit line for weak economies  yearly, be established for the purpose of refinancing official debt that is coming due for failing economies into brand-new, long-term loans with a 50-year maturity and a 10- to 20-year grace period.
Dr. Ruto advocated for the establishment of a just global financial architecture that will ensure equality for all members. Kenya has received loans from the IMF and the World Bank totaling billions of dollars.
The President advocated for a new global financial tax that would be paid by all members in accordance to their economic might, he was speaking at a roundtable in Paris, France.
“And we don’t want the World Bank and IMF to control those resources. We don’t have the last word because the IMF and World Bank do,” Dr. Ruto remarked.
The head of state said, “We want another organization of equals where you have as much voice because you pay, as much as we do because we pay.”
In order to finance and safeguard the renewal of nature, he also advocated for the creation of a new worldwide climate action funding system that would be funded by global carbon taxes on fossil fuel, aviation, and maritime transport financial activities.
Dr. Ruto participated in a roundtable discussion yesterday with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, and Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank Group, at the New Global Financial Pact Summit being held in Paris.
The President has joined others advocating for an end to the use of dollars in cross-border trade after recently criticizing the treatment of African leaders.
“That organization is the one we’re searching for. And for that reason, we are advocating for the necessity of a new financial architecture where power and governance are not concentrated in the hands of a select few,” added Ruto.
Through the IMF, World Bank, and other Bretton Woods organizations like the World commerce Organization, critics of the existing international financial system contend that wealthy nations, led by the United States, have been able to control the rules of international commerce and finance.
The US and Europe designate the heads of the World Bank and the IMF; they are not elected. There also seems to be an implicit understanding that the president of the IMF has always been a European and the head of the World Bank has always been a person from the US or someone selected by the US.
“The US controls well over half of the votes in both agencies and, along with the other members of the G7 and the EU, has de facto veto power over all important decisions.” In a 2020 essay, Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Jason Hickel stated that , “middle- and low-income nations, which combined make up 85% of the world’s population, have a minority share.”
Kenya’s major lenders are the World Bank and the IMF, and their influence in setting Kenya’s budgetary course increased during the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020.
After the Covid-19 outbreak and the ensuing uncertainty, Kenya’s debt composition changed, with China’s share falling behind that of the two international organizations.
The two global organizations have together given Kenya billions in “rescue loans,” bringing their portion of the debt to Ksh1.65 trillion by the end of March.
But there were requirements attached to these loans, including raising taxes and cutting spending.