This study examines the threshold effect of public debt on economic growth in Africa’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs), situating the analysis within the broader context of globalization, in which increased financial integration and global governance frameworks shape national debt dynamics. Using secondary data for the period 2000–2023, a dynamic threshold regression model is employed to estimate debt thresholds, while the system GMM estimator is applied to assess how institutional quality attenuates the debt–growth relationship. The results confirm a nonlinear relationship between debt and growth, with an overall public debt threshold of about 22%. Debt supports growth below this level but becomes contractionary above it.  […]