Category: Economy
China Stands Apart From Kenya’s Other Bilateral Creditors in Requiring Full Debt Repayment
While Japan, France, and Kenya's other major bilateral creditors are all giving Nairobi some breathing room during the ongoing pandemic in the form of reduced debt servicing payments, that is not the case with China. Last quarter, the Treasury transferred $266 million to Chinese creditors, mostly to ...
No One’s Really Sure What to Make of China’s FOCAC Financial Pledge
One of the key takeaways from the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) conference that took place in Dakar last month is that, unlike previous FOCACs, there's very little consensus over whether the event signaled that China's backing away from Africa or deepening its commitment to the ...
UN Warns Supply Chain Disruptions Will Hit Consumers Hard Next Year, Especially in Developing Countries
With shipping containers in critically short supply, the cost of sending goods from China to South Africa has surged from $1,000 a container to $8,000. It's a similar story in Southeast Asia, where container prices have tripled to $3,000 each.
First Trucks Roll Off the Assembly Line at a New Chinese-Backed Assembly Facility in Uganda
Chinese and Ugandan officials were on hand Wednesday to watch the first truck manufactured by the Uganda Automotive Group (UAG) roll off the assembly at the Namanve Industrial Park in central Uganda. The new factory is a partnership between UAG and China's ...
Why the Era of Low-Cost Imports From China May be Coming to an End in Africa (At Least For Now)
The ongoing supply chain disruptions are having a profound impact on the types of goods that consumers in Africa and other Global South countries can access. It used to cost just $1,000 per container to ship low-cost socks, shoes, electronics, and other ...
China Grabs on to Deborah Brautigam’s Frustration With the BBC
The Chinese government and state media have picked up on the controversy that erupted last week when Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, complained on Twitter that the BBC had edited her comments on allegations of 'Chinese debt-trap ...
The Different Readings of FOCAC
One of the intriguing results of last week’s FOCAC meeting has been a narrative pushed by key English-language publications that it represents a reduction in Chinese engagement with the continent. Bloomberg set the tone in its initial report which counted the sums mentioned in President Xi Jinping’s speech and ...
China Remains Africa’s Largest Source of FDI and Job Creation, Says EY’s Annual Investment Report
China was the leading source of foreign direct investment in Africa from 2016 to 2020 in terms of both jobs and capital invested, but third behind the United States and France in terms of the number of projects, according to Ernst & Young (EY)'s ...
The Uganda Airport Story and FOCAC Spark More “Bad Takes” in Both Chinese and African Media
The editors at Nigeria's Punch newspaper are apparently still unaware that the story about Uganda's Entebbe International Airport being seized by China as part of a debt default is not true. If they knew that the rumor had been conclusively debunked, ...
With an IMF Deal in the Bag, the Big Question is How Will Hichilema Handle Zambia’s Chinese Debts?
Zambian President Haikainde Hichilema (photo) got the news he was hoping for on Friday when the International Monetary Fund announced that it had granted preliminary approval for a $1.4 billion, three-year credit facility to the economically beleaguered country. President Hichilema's government ...
The Uganda Airport Controversy is Prompting Renewed Discussion in East Africa About Chinese Debt
The last two weeks' uproar over (unfounded) allegations that Uganda will forfeit the Entebbe International Airport is finally winding down. It's making way for a more nuanced, thoughtful discussion on the implications of Chinese loans to East African countries. Economist and ...
BBC Apologizes to Professor Deborah Brautigam For Misrepresenting Her Views on “Debt Trap Diplomacy”
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) apologized to Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, for editing an interview she did with the network last week in such a way that it sounded like she was a proponent of ...











