Showing posts with label airport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airport. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2022

Is China's Loan for Ugandan Airport Predatory?

 AidData published in February 2022 a study titled "Is Beijing a Predatory Lender? New Evidence from a Previously Undisclosed Loan Contract for the Entebbe International Airport Upgrading and Expansion Project" by Brad Parks, Ammar A. Malik, and Alex Wooley.

AidData's publication of the final, unredacted version of a controversial $200 million loan contract between China Export-Import Bank and the government of Uganda for the Entebbe International Airport Upgrading and Expansion Project reveals that the airport itself is not a source of collateral that the lender can seize in the event of default.

Instead, China Export-Import Bank required the borrower to provide a fully liquid cash deposit in an escrow account that the lender can unilaterally seize in the event the government of Uganda defaults on its repayment obligations.  AidData concluded that Chinese lenders have no desire to seize assets but they are looking out for their own interests. This loan contract does not support the charge of predatory lending but does contain intrusive conditions.  


Friday, October 2, 2020

Chinese-financed Project in Sierra Leone Cancelled

The Agenda for International Development published on 25 September 2020 an article titled "China's Infrastructure Investment in Africa -- A Case of Sierra Leone" by Saite Lu, University of Cambridge. 

The author looks the Mamamoh Airport project in Sierra Leone.  The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were critical of the project.  In 2018, Sierra Leone signed a financing contract with the China Export-Import Bank.  A new government in Sierra Leone cancelled the project the same year.