For years, Nigerian politicians and media reports have issued breathless warnings about the dangers of becoming too indebted to China, fearing the dreaded “debt trap” and the risk of surrendering the country’s strategic assets.
While the economic risks associated with taking on too much debt are indeed relevant in Nigeria today where the government now owes creditors more than $100 billion, China, though, is not the problem. Chinese loans, in fact, account for just around 4% of total public debt.
So what’s behind the Nigerian anxiety over Chinese loans? Zuhumnan Dapel, an economist and non-resident senior fellow at the University of St. Andrews’ Nigerian Economic Summit Group, joins Eric & Cobus to explain what’s driving this narrative and how it fits within the larger Nigerian debt debate.
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