Podcast: Is Africa Borrowing Too Much From China?

With increasing concern over the high amount of Chinese debt that African governments are holding, this is an interesting podcast to get a 360 degree view of the topic. At the recently concluded  2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to the continent in loans, grants, and development financing. Xi Jinping also announced eight initiatives aimed at improving Sino-Africa relations. Such investments span across healthcare, education, security, cultural exchanges and increasing non-resource imports from Africa. 

The podcast was recorded right before the summit but touches on a lot of the issues people worry about when it comes to Chinese debt in Africa. One of the main speakers is Andrew Alli, the former CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation,  a public-private development finance institution, where he oversaw $4.5 billion of investments across 30 African countries. He brings up the Kenyan standard gauge railway that has been criticized for costing the Kenyan government substantially more when working with China than it would have with other investors. 

While no one questions Kenya’s, and Africa as a whole, need for infrastructure, there are legitimate concerns as to whether it makes sense to borrow so much from China to pay for it. 

The podcast continues to highlight issues Alli has formerly pointed out in various publications. 

"Chinese infrastructure investment is no panacea and needs (like any other major project), to be managed very carefully, something that African governments and project sponsors have often proved incapable of doing well,” he said in a recent column on the financial news website Quartz Africa. “But such investment is a useful addition to the slate of options available to Africans and should be welcomed as such.”

It's an interesting podcast for anyone trying to understand China's growing presence in Africa and the criticism around Chinese debt on the continent.