Thursday, October 31, 2013

China in Africa: The $1 Billion Loan to Niger

Niger has accepted a controversial $1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) to finance development projects, the West African nation's planning minister said Tuesday.

Repayment of the 25-year loan will start in eight years' time "thanks to resources from the sale of oil being produced" by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in the east of the country, Amadou Boubacar Cisse announced.

The agreement, the conditions of which Cisse said were "very favourable", was signed in China on September 30.

Details were not immediately available, but typically China Exim Bank loans require the borrower nation to allocate work and equipment contracts for the project to Chinese companies.

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