Category: Debt Trap

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Abuja tried to reassure increasingly anxious Nigerians that Beijing has no plans to use loans as a way to seize strategic assets. Press Officer Sun Saixiong addressed the ongoing controversy over a contentious clause in a contract that a ...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday issued a statement in response to the escalating "sovereign immunity controversy" in Nigeria. The ministry did not specifically address "clause 8(1)" which stipulates that Nigeria will waive its sovereign immunity in the event of a default on ...

On July 15, 2019, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Djibouti's Minister of Economy and Finance, tweeted to announce that the restructuring of China's ExIm Bank loan for the construction of the Djiboutian section of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway line would be completed even though "a few small details" ...

My own focus on China-Africa relations is filtered through my background in media studies. One effect of this training is that I'm fascinated by the narratives that shape the relationship, how they spread and what they reveal.  One of the hardiest ...

This year's dramatic fall in oil prices combined with the federal government's move to take on billions of dollars in new loans in the midst of an ongoing economic crisis is prompting widespread anxiety in Nigeria. Those concerns were further amplified this week when the country's Debt ...

Back in May, the online Nigerian financial news site Nairametrics ran an article with the frightening headline: "Nigeria is falling into China’s debt trap." This, of course, is nothing new. Many Nigerians, along with countless others across Africa, now firmly believe that China ...

Contrary to widespread perception, Zambia is not ensnared in any kind of Chinese debt trap, argues Reuters Breakingviews columnist Ed Cropley in a recent op-ed video published on the news agency's YouTube channel.  Quite the opposite, in fact. If anyone's caught ...

Amid all of the talk of Chinese debt traps and moves by Nigerian legislators to review the past 20 years of loan contracts with China, the country's Debt Management Office (DMO) in Abuja wants to clarify a few things. The DMO on Friday published a short statement ...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued yet another dire warning this week to African leaders about the dangers presented by China. He implored African stakeholders to beware of how Beijing is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis, for which China is responsible in his view, to extend predatory ...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is seemingly trying to downplay today's China-Africa summit with yet another warning to African leaders about Beijing's supposed ill intentions on the continent. In a tweet with an accompanying video published on the State Department's French-language Twitter account, ...

While Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and his cabinet appear increasingly determined to borrow more from China to fund infrastructure projects, even amid the current economic crisis, critics in the House of Representatives are expressing alarm over the lack transparency in the Chinese loans.

Georgetown University Assistant Professor Ken Ochieng’ Opalo published a blog post on his personal site this weekend that aimed to debunk the widely-held perception in Washington that China is engaging in a form of "debt-trap diplomacy" in Africa.