Category: Loans
Deborah Brautigam on Whether the Burgeoning U.S.-China Conflict Will Complicate Debt Relief for Africa
Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. reflected on the "war of words" between the World Bank, led by longstanding China-hawk David Malpass and Beijing. Brautigam explains that the concerns expressed by ...
Nigerian Ministers Take Press on Tour of Lagos-Ibadan Railway Construction Site to Show Them Chinese Loans Are Being Put to Good Use
In a bid to push back against critics, two ministers invited the news media to visit a construction site along the Lagos-Ibadan railway to show them firsthand that money borrowed from China is not being wasted. Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and ...
Nigeria’s Transportation Minister Renews Plea For Legislators to Stop Questioning Loan Agreements With China
Nigerian Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi renewed his appeal to the National Assembly to stop questioning the $5.3 billion Chinese loan to build the Ibadan-Kano standard gauge railway. This is the second time the minister has called on legislators to temporarily stop their investigation into the Chinese loan. ...
The Complicated Geopolitics Behind the G20’s Debt Suspension Program
Africa economist Mark Bohlund made an interesting observation yesterday following the news that both Djibouti and Zambia had been approved by the G20 to take part in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative. The fact that both countries owe little to nothing to one of China's ...
Nigeria’s Debt Management Office Tries (Again) to Set the Record Straight About Chinese Loans
For a second time, the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) published easy to understand infographics that attempt to dispel the downright inaccurate information circulating in the press and on social media about the country's loans from China. The DMO ...
You Can Actually See Chinese Soft Power Draining Away in Nigeria
China's apparent unwillingness to engage Nigerian civil society in a discussion over the ongoing loan controversy is eroding what's left of Beijing's credibility in the media, politics and among the country's enormous young, online population that gets most of its news from social media. ...
Chinese Embassy to Nigeria: Don’t Worry, We’re Not Going to Seize Your Assets
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 ...
Nigeria’s Transport Minister Says What Others Won’t: Who Else is Going to Lend Us Money for Infrastructure?
Nigeria's embattled Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi appeared on national TV again on Tuesday to try and clear up the rumors and misinformation surrounding a $500 million Chinese loan, which includes a "sovereign immunity" clause. That clause, now commonly ...
Finally, Some Straight Talk on Chinese Loans to Africa
Seemingly fed up with the past week of overheated controversy in Nigeria over Chinese loans, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi is telling it like it is. People may not like the Chinese, they may not like the terms of Chinese loans and they may not like the debt they're ...
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Tepid Response to the Escalating Loan Controversy in Nigeria
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 ...
Transport Minister Pushes Back Against Accusations that Chinese Loans Compromise Nigeria’s Sovereignty
Nigeria's Transportation Minister Chibuike Amaechi went on national television in an effort to tamp down the controversy erupting over whether Chinese loans will compromise the country's sovereignty. The issue surfaced last week when the Chairman of the House Committee on Treaties, ...
Sovereign Immunity Controversy in Nigeria Sparks Media Panic About Chinese “Debt Traps”
For much of the past week, Nigerian news outlets across the spectrum have published a series of alarming stories claiming that the country's sovereignty is now jeopardized by its various infrastructure loans, specifically on account of the standard sovereign immunity clauses in the loan agreements.