Monday, March 7, 2016

Ghana: What Happened to China's $3 Billion Loan

The China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University published in February 2016 a policy brief titled "What Happened to China Development Bank's $3 Billion Loan to Ghana?" by Thomas Chen, international economist at the U.S. Department of State. 

Ghana secured a $3 billion loan facility from the China Development Bank (CDB), collateralized with a portion of the country's oil revenue, to finance major infrastructure projects.  By 2015, Ghana had canceled half of the CDB loan facility.  Disbursement of the CDB loan was painfully slow, and the urgently needed gas project financed under the loan had fallen far behind schedule.  This brief looks at the factors behind these developments.