Development Reimagined published in December 2020 a study titled "COVID-19: China's Debt Relief" by the Oxford China Africa Consultancy.
The study looks at developing countries globally, but gives special attention to Africa. African countries with the most bilateral debt owed to China over the next 5 years are in descending order: Angola ($15 billion), Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Uganda, Djibouti, and Sudan ($1 billion). As a percent of total external debt, the African countries with the highest bilateral debt to China are in descending order: Djibouti (77 percent), Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, Angola, Guinea, Uganda, Cameroon, Togo, Kenya, and Comoro Islands (30 percent).
The study concludes that China can play an important role in relieving African debt but argues that multilateral lenders, other countries, and their private banks must also find ways to do their part by providing debt relief themselves and reassessing how they see debt risks going forwards.
