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China's investments in Africa increased tremendously in the last decade following its Belt and Road Initiative. This project saw increased Chinese loans flowing to African countries to fund key infrastructure projects.
In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, Chinese loans to African countries amounted to $61.16 billion, comprising all public and publicly guaranteed debt.
Kenya tops the list of African countries with the largest Chinese loans, costing $6 billion. Ethiopia is second with loans worth $5.4 billion. Significant Chinese investments in these two countries point to their relative importance as key pathways of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Nigeria has the third-largest Chinese loan worth $5.2 billion, followed by Egypt with a loan of $4 billion.
Other countries with large loans include the Ivory Coast, which has $3.8 billion, Zambia, which has $3.6 billion, South Africa, which has $3.5 billion, Cameroon, which has $3.4 billion, Angola, which has $3.3 billion, and Uganda, which has $2.6 billion.
Interestingly, countries with larger Chinese loans were more likely to be in the Eastern, Central, and Southern African region of the continent. North African countries, apart from Egypt, owed China lower amounts in debt, suggesting lower Chinese interests in that region.
About the Data
This article is largely based on a dataset sourced from the World Bank listing Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) loans from China to African countries (2015–2023), measured in current USD as Debt Outstanding and Disbursed (DOD). Find the clean full dataset here
Cover Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
