China's Loans to Africa

The SAIS China-Africa Research Initiative published in April 2016 a policy brief titled "How Chinese Money Is Transforming Africa: It's Not What you Think" by Jyhjong Hwang, Deborah Brautigam, and Janet Eom.

From 2000 to 2014, the Chinese government, banks, and contractors extended about $87 billion in loans to African governments and SOEs. The China Export-Import Bank and China Development Bank provided most of the loans. Only 56 percent of the loans actually materialized and are being used. The rest turned out to be mistakes, hopes, rumors, cancelled or real loans but not from China. The top recipients were Angola (23 percent), Ethiopia (14 percent), Sudan and Kenya (6 percent each), and the DRC (5 percent).