In December 2018, rumors began circulating that Kenya had staked its valuable Mombasa Port as collateral for US$ 3.6 billion in Chinese loans for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). New research from CARI shows why the collateral rumor is wrong. A CARI team of scholars and practitioners of...

This policy brief provides an analysis of Chinese practice in financing large—over 50 megawatt (MW)—hydropower projects in Africa between 2000 and 2013. Hydropower energy has benefits as a renewable and local source of power, but there can be significant social and environmental risks. These...

In early December 2015, Chinese and African officials met in Johannesburg at the sixth Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting. The 2015 FOCAC summit took place amid news reports of China's economic slowdown, and concerns over how Africa would be impacted. In this policy brief, Janet...

When, why, and how are Chinese banks really financing African development? This policy brief presents CARI researchers' analysis of Chinese loans in Africa, drawing from data collected and cleaned by CARI since 2007. Between 2000 and 2014, the Chinese government, banks and contractors extended...

In a thoroughly researched piece, Brautigam, Tang, and Xia offer a preliminary analysis of the nature of Chinese manufacturing investments in Africa, focusing predominantly on four countries -- Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2016, they...

As China is poised to become the world's largest creditor, concerns about debt sustainability have grown. Yet considerable confusion exists over what is likely to happen when a government runs into trouble repaying its Chinese loans. In this paper, the authors draw on CARI data to review the...

In the past two years, news headlines have periodically speculated that African borrowers are at risk of losing their sovereign assets to Chinese lenders. In this policy brief, the authors explore what is known about the legal aspects of Chinese lending, including the waiver of sovereign...

Zambia's debt difficulties hit headlines in November 2020 when the country defaulted on its Eurobond payments. In August 2021 a new president, Hakainde Hichilema, took office, facing a debt burden that had never been fully transparent to Zambia's public and the world. In this Policy Brief, CARI...