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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Chinese lenders have extended US$7.6 billion in pandemic debt relief, mainly to Africa

  • Most of it went to Angola, partly because it is China’s largest borrower, according to Johns Hopkins SAIS China Africa Research Initiative
  • Only three African nations have released details of their G20 debt relief

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ICBC is one of four Chinese lenders that have provided debt relief during the pandemic. Photo: Roy Issa
Jevans Nyabiage
Chinese lenders have provided at least US$7.6 billion in debt relief to countries, mainly African nations, struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new data analysis.
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It found that most of that relief – about US$6.2 billion – went to Angola and was provided by the China Development Bank (CDB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Angola has received about a third of all the loans advanced by China to African nations in the past two decades.

The analysis was carried out by researchers at the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

It said Chinese lenders had provided the debt relief in 2020 and this year via three channels: the Group of 20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to help 37 poor countries cope with the pandemic; through debt cancellation under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC); and ad hoc relief from commercial banks.

In addition to the CDB and ICBC, Beijing’s two officially designated bilateral creditors – Export-Import Bank of China (Eximbank) and the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) – also provided debt relief.

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Beijing has said China Eximbank and the CIDCA extended G20 DSSI relief to 23 countries worldwide, including 16 African nations, during the pandemic.

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