Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published in September 2023 a policy brief titled "A New State of Lending: Chinese Loans to Africa" by Oyintarelado Moses, Jyhjong Hwang, Lucas Engel, and Victoria Yvonne Bien-Aime.
China has significantly decreased its lending to Africa. In 2021, it signed seven loans with African countries totaling $1.22 billion and in 2022 nine loans amounting to $994 million. This compares with $28 billion signed in 2016. The decline is due to debt issues in Africa and Chinese domestic, global, and regional priorities. The Export-Import Bank of China continues to be the top Chinese lender in Africa.
Although the African energy sector has historically received the most Chinese loans, there were no sovereign loans for energy projects in 2021 and 2022. Senegal, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Angola, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, and the DRC were the largest borrowers in 2021-2022.
