A total of 39 Chinese lenders provided 1,243 loans worth $170.08 billion to 49 African governments and seven regional institutions between 2000 and 2022, according to data compiled by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre.

In 2021 and 2022, Beijing made 16 new loan commitments worth $2.22 billion to African countries, resulting in two consecutive years of lending below $2 billion to Africa, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the centre’s data.

According to the centre, loan averages declined by 37 percent from $213.03 million to $135.15 million in the pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) to the pandemic years (2020-2022).

In addition, a combination of greening the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the China-Africa High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation and the “small and/or beautiful” approach, future lending to Africa is likely to mean fewer large-scale loans over $500 million, more loans with smaller values under $50 million and loans with more beneficial social and environmental impacts.

(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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