Debt in Central African Republic

Debt is money or another agreed performance that a debtor owes to a creditor. It may arise from a loan, credit purchase, supplier contract, unpaid public obligation or informal borrowing arrangement. Public debt is managed formally through the Ministry of Finance and Budget, especially the Direction Générale du Trésor et de la Comptabilité Publique (DGTCP) and its Direction de la Dette Publique Extérieure (DDPE). The Comité National de la Dette Publique (CNDP) provides strategic coordination, while the Comité Technique de la Dette (CTD) handles technical work. The Stratégie de Gestion de la Dette à Moyen Terme (SDMT) guides borrowing and debt management for 2025–2027. The state can use Treasury bills and bonds known as BTA and OTA, bilateral and multilateral loans, concessional financing, grants and regional syndicated issues. The DDPE maintains debt data, manages debt service, supports negotiations and publishes debt statistics. The CNDP is involved in the review or validation of loans, guarantees and on-lending arrangements. Public debt service follows the relevant contract and may require renegotiation or arrears clearance when payments are delayed. In the first quarter of 2026, public debt reached 1,112.15 billion XAF including arrears. The debt stock excluding arrears was 946.93 billion XAF, equal to 53.8% of gross domestic product. Domestic debt was 758.21 billion XAF, or 68.2% of the total, while external debt was 353.94 billion XAF, or 31.8%. Arrears amounted to 165.22 billion XAF, including 148.18 billion XAF in external arrears and 17.04 billion XAF in domestic arrears. Long-dated external arrears accounted for 134.61 billion XAF, and new current arrears for 13.57 billion XAF. The state paid 20.02 billion XAF in debt service against 22.21 billion XAF planned, an execution rate of 90.14%. Debt service represented 40.93% of budget revenue. Domestic debt had an average interest cost of 3.6% and an average time to maturity of 4.5 years. External debt had an average interest cost of 0.8% and an average time to maturity of 9.5 years. The lower average cost of external debt does not remove refinancing and liquidity risks. The 2025 IMF debt sustainability analysis assessed external and overall debt-distress risks as high, while projecting public debt as sustainable. Coverage gaps include non-guaranteed state-owned-enterprise debt and supplier arrears. In 2024, public and publicly guaranteed debt was approximately 60% of GDP, domestic debt about 28.7% of GDP, CEMAC market debt 16% of GDP and private-sector loans 13% of GDP. Non-performing loans reached 12.7% in December 2024. Businesses commonly use bank or microfinance loans, supplier credit and informal savings or credit clubs. The OHADA legal framework provides formal routes for commercial debt recovery and insolvency. Under the Acte uniforme portant organisation des procédures simplifiées de recouvrement et des voies d’exécution (AUVE), in force since 16 February 2024, a creditor may use an injonction de payer and may seek conservatory or enforcement seizures, including against receivables, remuneration or real estate. The Acte uniforme portant organisation des procédures collectives d’apurement du passif (AUPC), in force since 24 December 2015, provides conciliation, règlement préventif, redressement judiciaire and liquidation des biens. These procedures can apply to merchants, entreprenants, private non-commercial legal entities and public enterprises operating under private law. National courts apply the OHADA framework, with the CCJA providing the regional judicial structure. Private households have fewer formal debt-management options. Research reviewed for the Central African Republic did not establish a national private-insolvency or independent debt-advice equivalent for individual non-traders. Contractual negotiation and informal social mechanisms may help, but they do not have the same legal force as a court procedure. Formal financial access is limited: 70.2% of adults were reported to have no account at a formal financial institution, 52.3% borrowed through an informal savings club, and microfinance represented about 1% of credit facilities and 0.5% of the population. Rural finance lacks a developed institutional and legal framework, and no current official household-debt stock was identified in the reviewed sources. Regional rules also matter. BEAC supports the CEMAC regional government-securities market, while COBAC supervises banking activity. These institutions become relevant when debt involves regulated credit, arrears or financial-sector supervision; they do not create a general household insolvency procedure. Debt instruments such as BTA and OTA belong to debt management even when they are purchased as financial investments. Interest, repayment and service figures belong here when they concern the debt itself, while general banking, investing or household-cost questions belong to their respective topics.