China shows up where and when the west will not – Osinbajo

Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president of Nigeria described China as the largest provider of foreign direct investment in Africa who has come through for African countries when the West will not or are reluctant to do so.

The vice president said this in a tweet Thursday.

“The United States held the Africa-US summit mid-December last year which was meant to register the US’s interest in being a more active player in Africa,” he tweeted.

He said that most African countries are rightly unapologetic about their close ties to China as Africa needs the loans and infrastructure and China offers them.

“The memory of the destructive conditionalities of the Brenton Woods loans are still fresh and the debris is everywhere and the preoccupation of Western governments and media with the so-called China debt trap might well be an overreaction. I recommend an eye-opening lecture by Professor Deborah Brautigam at about two weeks ago at Jesus ollege Cambridge,” he said.

“The truth as she points out, is that all of Chinese lending to Africa is only 5% of all outstanding public and publicly guaranteed debt in low and middle income countries compared to 23% held by the World Bank and other multilaterals.

He noted that Chinese lenders account for 12 percent of Africa’s private and public external debt. And the Chinese have also been there when the debts cannot be paid.

“In early 2020 as COVID battered African economies, China came together with other G20 members to launch the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). 73 low income economies benefited from the suspension of principal and interest payments. Chinese banks provided 63% of the total debt relief while being only owed 30% of the debt service payments due,” he added.

In Mid-December, the US hosted the Africa-US summit, the last one was held in 2014. It appears the summit was meant to at least register the US's interest in being a more active player in Africa.

Most African countries are rightly unapologetic about their close ties to China. pic.twitter.com/XyeX89vPDv

— Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) March 30, 2023