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AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK CHIEF CRITICIZES OPAQUE LOANS TIED TO AFRICA'S NATURAL
RESOURCES

Taiwo Adebayo - Associated Press - Fri Mar 15, 5:09PM CDT



LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The head of the African Development Bank is calling for an
end to loans given in exchange for the continent's rich supplies of oil or
critical minerals used in smartphones and electric car batteries.

“They are just bad, first and foremost, because you can’t price the assets
properly,” Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview with The Associated Press in
Lagos, Nigeria, last week. “If you have minerals or oil under the ground, how do
you come up with a price for a long-term contract? It’s a challenge.”

Linking future revenue from natural resource exports to loan paydowns is often
touted as a way for recipients to get financing for infrastructure projects and
for lenders to reduce the risk of not getting their money back. Such deals that
have helped China gain control over mineral mining in places like Congo and have
left some African countries in financial crisis.

The shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles has caused a spike in the
demand for critical minerals, driving these kind of loans. That includes a
China-Congo deal that strengthens Beijing’s position in the global supply chain
for EVs and other products as it taps into the world's largest reserves of
cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries, in the impoverished
central African country.

Adesina, whose Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based institution helps finance development
in African countries, said these arrangements come with a litany of problems.

He highlighted the uneven nature of the negotiations, with lenders typically
holding the upper hand and dictating terms to cash-strapped African nations.
This power imbalance, coupled with a lack of transparency and the potential for
corruption, creates fertile ground for exploitation, Adesina said.

“These are the reasons I say Africa should put an end to natural resource-backed
loans," Adesina said. He pointed to a bank initiative that helps "countries
renegotiate those loans that are asymmetric, not transparent and wrongly
priced.”

Adesina said loans secured with natural resources pose a challenge for
development banks like his and the International Monetary Fund, which promote
sustainable debt management. Countries may struggle to get or repay loans from
these institutions because they have to use the income from their natural
resources — typically crucial to their economies — to pay off resource-tied
debts, he said.

Adesina specifically mentioned Chad’s crippling financial crisis after an
oil-backed loan from commodity trader Glencore left the central African nation
using most of its oil proceeds to pay off its debt.

A Glencore spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After Chad, Angola and the Republic of Congo approached the IMF for support, the
multilateral lender insisted on the renegotiation of their natural
resource-backed loans.

At least 11 African countries have taken dozens of loans worth billions of
dollars secured with their natural resources since the 2000s, and China is by
far the top source of funding through policy banks and state-linked companies.

Western commodity traders and banks, such as Glencore, Trafigura and Standard
Chartered, also have funded oil-for-cash deals, notably with the Republic of
Congo, Chad and Angola.

Standard Chartered didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment, while
Trafigura pointed to its 2020 report called “Prepayments Demystified,” which
says that “trading firms are enabling production that would otherwise not be
possible — thus underpinning economic growth, job creation and the generation of
fiscal revenues in the countries concerned.”

Adesina said there was no “fixation” on one country as being behind these types
of loans when asked about criticisms over China’s lending backed by oil;
critical minerals such as cobalt and copper used in electric vehicles and other
products; and bauxite, the main mineral in aluminum manufacturing, which has
been used in China’s recent resource-backed loan contracts with Guinea and
Ghana.

“It is not about one country or the other; any country can exploit when you
don’t know what you are doing,” he said, adding, “The capacity to negotiate at
the country level, the capacity to plan, the capacity for debt management is
very important.”

Mao Ning, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters
last year that Beijing operates with the “principle of transparency and
openness” in relations with Africa.

Congo has been looking to review the infrastructure-for-minerals agreement it
signed with China in 2008 over concerns it gets too few benefits from the
arrangement. That grants Chinese firms Sinohydro and China Railway Group a 68%
stake in a joint venture for copper and cobalt with Congo’s state mining
company, Gecamines.

Last year, Congo's state auditor demanded China's infrastructure investment
commitment be increased to $20 billion from the original $3 billion to match the
value of the resources sold by the state under the deal. China rejected the
auditor's report.

Adesina, a former Nigerian minister for agriculture, said the African
Development Bank's new Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa aims to
mobilize $10 billion to help countries finance “bankable” sustainable
infrastructure, including in the energy and transport sectors, which could limit
the allure of problematic financing.

___

This story was first published on March 13, 2024. It was updated on March 15,
2024 to make clear that while Akinwumi Adesina, the head of the African
Development Bank, is calling for an end to loans given in exchange for the
continent’s rich supplies of oil or critical minerals, he did not single out any
particular country that funds such loans.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial
support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all
content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of
supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


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