Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
ZIPAR Executive Director Dr. Pamela Kabaso (Picture by Albert Mpezeni)
Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) Executive Director Dr. Pamela Kabaso has observed that it is evident that the borrowing space in African countries is shrinking rapidly.
Dr Kabaso said this in Lusaka when ZIPAR hosted a policy consultative meeting with a delegation from China who are in the country to collect recommendations from Zambia for the inclusion at the upcoming Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that will be held in September 2018 in Beijing, China.
She says despite the availability of financing pledged during Johannesburg Summit, the sharp slowdown in growth in commodity export countries such as Zambia is going to impact adversely on the demand and the feasibility of large infrastructure projects in these countries.
She says some African countries are already facing challenges in servicing existing loans.
Dr. Kabaso adds that while growth is holding up in many non-commodity exporting countries; the rising debt level is likely to curb appetite for future Chinese project financing.
She estimates that public debt in the median Sub-Saharan African countries rose from 34 percent of GDP in 2013 to an estimated 53 percent in 2017, and debt service as a share of revenue has doubled.
The ZIPAR Executive Director says in Zambia, debt service amounts to almost a quarter of government revenue.
Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming (Picture by Albert Mpezeni)
Speaking at the same meeting, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming says the Chinese Government has been proving loans to African countries for infrastructure development.
Mr. Youming says last year alone, the Chinese Government provided about US$280 million towards industrialization.
China is expected to host the seventh FOCAC which will serve as a platform for outlining the country’s agenda for engagement with Africa until 2021.