China lent $170bn to Africa over the last 20 years. That is changing

A new report from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center uses the latest data from its Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) database to provide a state of play of Chinese loans to Africa and identify key trends.

Important things to know about China’s financing to the continent

• Total loans: The CLA Database estimates that from 2000-2022, some 39 Chinese lenders provided 1,243 loans amounting to $170.08bn to 49 African governments and seven regional institutions.

• Comparing loan totals to the World Bank and African Development Bank: At $170.08bn, China’s estimated total lending from 2000-2022 is 64% of the World Bank’s $264.15bn and almost five times the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) $36.85bn in sovereign loans to Africa.

• New loans: For 2021 and 2022, the CLA Database recorded 16 new loan commitments worth $2.22bn from Chinese lenders to African government borrowers, signifying two consecutive years of lending to Africa below $2bn.

• Lenders and borrowers: The China Exim Bank continued to be the top lender in Africa, providing nine out of the 16 loans, amounting to $1.42bn or 64% of all loans by amount in 2021-2022. Senegal, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Angola, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda and the DR Congo were the borrowers in 2021-22. The prominence of West African borrowers is a new trend.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? This report provides definitive confirmation that China is no longer in the business of financing large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa. To be sure, China is still an important source of development finance, just nowhere near as generous as it was a few years ago.

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Published in partnership with The China-South Project