One of Nigeria’s Elder Statesmen Reflects on Ties With China

Aminu Wali, 79, is long retired from a distinguished diplomatic career as Nigeria's envoy to China, the United Nations and a stint as the country's foreign minister. In a wide-ranging interview with the Premium Times newspaper, Wali reflected on the current state of ties with China and ...

Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Renews Urgent Plea for African Debt Relief

Ethiopia's envoy to the United States, Fitsum Arega, used the occasion of the United Nations 75th anniversary to renew a plea for urgent African debt relief that was first issued by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on March 24th.

Uganda’s National Debt Surged 21% to Offset the Downturn Brought on by COVID-19

The Ugandan government has significantly increased its borrowing in a bid to help mitigate the financial impact of the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Central Bank on Tuesday said that in the period from June 2019 to June 2020, borrowing increase by ...

Nigeria’s President Buhari Responds to Debt Critics: “We Just Have to Take Loans to do Rail, Roads and Power”

President Muhammadu Buhari finally weighed on the debate currently raging in Nigeria over the government's decision to borrow billions of dollars, including from China, to build badly-needed infrastructure. “We have so many challenges with infrastructure. We just have to take loans ...

Debt Trap? Nah, We’re Too Disorganized For Anything Like That Says China’s Chargé d’Affaires in Nigeria

China's Chargé d'Affaires in the embassy in Nigeria, Zhao Yong, provided an uncharacteristically frank rebuttal last week to the persistent accusations that Beijing is engaged in predatory lending in Nigeria and Africa writ large. In typical fashion, Zhao blamed the U.S. ...

Why African Countries in Debt to China Should Pay Close Attention to What’s Happening in Laos

A Chinese state-owned company will take control of the power grid in Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, in a deal to stave off default of its multi-billion-dollar debts to China. The two sides reached an agreement last week for Electricite du ...

Is Debt-for-Equity Chinese for “Debt Trap?”

Tucked away in a remote corner of Southeast Asia, an important experiment is now underway that could have profound implications for how China manages its vast loan portfolio in Africa and in other developing regions. Last week, Laos's state-owned electric power ...

FT Article Sparks a Lot of Excitement About Chinese Debt Restructuring Deals But Details Still Remain Sparse

An FT story published over the weekend injected a burst of rare optimism into the African debt relief discussion. The article by U.S.-based Markets Correspondent Camilla Hodgson reported on last Tuesday's remarks by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that Beijing had reached debt relief ...

The Nigerian Government’s Seemingly Endless Effort to Correct Misinformation About the Country’s Debt

Nigeria's Debt Management Office, once again, issued a breakdown of the country's debt to external creditors in a bid to push back against the widely-held, yet misinformed perception that the country is in debt beyond its capacity -- mostly to China. ...

Opposition Leaders in Nigeria’s House of Representatives Concerned about Pause in Investigation Into Chinese Loans

PDP opposition legislators from the House of Representatives took to the media on Monday to voice their concerns that a three-week postponement will jeopardize the investigation into Chinese loans.  The House of Representatives last week suspended all investigations, public hearings, and ...

A Primer in How Chinese Development Finance Works in Africa

Today, China is the world's largest official creditor, more twice as large as the World and the International Monetary Fund combined. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa where Beijing has lent an estimated ...

Tempers Flare in Nigerian House Hearing on Chinese Loans

Three weeks of steadily building tensions over Chinese loans to Nigeria erupted in a House committee hearing on Monday. Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, and Agreements, Nicholas Ossai, confronted one another in a series of ...
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