China issued 16 new loans totaling $2.22 billion to African governments in 2021/2022

A new update to the Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database, managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, estimates that from 2000-2022, 39 Chinese lenders provided 1,243 loans amounting to $170.08 billion to 49 African governments and seven regional institutions.

For the years 2021 and 2022 combined, the CLA Database recorded a total of 16 new loan commitments worth $2.22 billion from Chinese lenders to African government borrowers, signifying two consecutive years of lending to Africa below $2 billion.

The CLA Database is an interactive data project tracking loan commitments from Chinese development finance institutions (DFIs), commercial banks, government entities and companies to African governments, state-owned enterprises and regional multilateral institutions.

A new policy brief analyzes the state of Chinese lending to Africa.

Main findings:

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

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