Why Did Chinese Loans to Africa Fall So Much in 2020?

Etsehiwot Kebret and Yike Fu

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According to a recent report published by Boston University`s Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, that’s the number of new loan commitments made from China to African countries in 2020. That’s a startlingly low figure, particularly in the context of the fact that, according to the same database, between 2000 and 2020, Chinese financiers made loan commitments worth $160 billion to African countries – that’s an average of $8 billion annually.

So why such a huge drop, and what does this mean for the future? Is this era of Chinese lending to Africa over?

Based on conversations with several Chinese and African stakeholders, there are two key reasons for the drop.