National Is Africa starting to choke on China’s lending glut? China’s role in Africa has expanded with its stratospheric rise as an economic giant over the past two decades BL PREMIUM

It was a time for smiles and handshakes as the delegations from Sierra Leone and Exim Bank of China sealed a loan to provide the impoverished West African state with a new airport. Just months later, the much-trumpeted Mamamah International Airport scheme, estimated to cost $400m, has gone up in smoke. Sierra Leone’s new government has scrapped the contract, bluntly declaring it “uneconomical”. Instead it will use an existing, under-used airport and improve access to it. The decision coincides with concern internationally about Africa’s mounting debts with China — fears that are sometimes voiced by individual Africans, but rarely their governments. “We need Chinese development, but not at the expense of our unborn children who will be paying the debts,” said Hassan Dumbuya, a taxi driver using a partly completed, Chinese-built toll road between Freetown and Masiaka. No revolt So, is Sierra Leone’s U-turn on the airport the dawn of an African revolt against Chinese-funded projects? N...