Friends of a doctor who died in Nigeria because the lift in her hospital accommodation fell nine floors with her inside are not surprised by a new study that reveals the country spends twice as much money on debt repayments as on health and education combined.
The major new report from the One Campaign, an anti-poverty group, focuses on the staggering amount of private loans that African countries have to service, often to the detriment of development.
It is not possible to draw a direct causal link between Nigeria’s debt crisis and the death last month of Dr Vwaere Diaso, but every dollar spent servicing debt is one that cannot go into vital infrastructure.
Dr Diaso was just two weeks away from finishing her training at Lagos General Hospital when she died.