For the first time in years, a few African countries are venturing back into the bond market to raise funds for infrastructure and to pay down their debts. However, borrowing more from private creditors is a risky move given the difficulties that many African governments, namely Zambia, have encountered in restructuring their existing debt portfolios.

And if Zambia's experience is anything to go by, it's taught us that whatever global financial safety net was in place to help countries in distress was wholly inadequate to meet the challenge.

William Kring, executive director of Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, and Marina Zucker-Marques, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of London's Centre for Sustainable Finance, recently published a new article that explored the inability of the current financial system to protect the poorest, most vulnerable states.

William and Marina join Eric & Cobus to discuss the situation in Africa and China's role, in particular, as one of the continent's largest and most important creditors.

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