Ghana Uses Chinese Credit Line To Build The Same Carbon Based Energy Infrastructure That Made Europe Wealthy And Libya A Target For Attack

Africa-Asia-Confidential: The Revolution Will Be Financed

In their desperation to move beyond their present confinements I understand what Ghana and several other African nations are doing via their partnership with China.

They must make sure that they retain the regulatory control of what happens inside of their nation and, more importantly make sure that their own people are allowed to work in highly skilled management, finance and technical jobs that these investments from the Chinese will bring to their lands.

There are few nations in this modern world that don't owe their foundation to capital investments from existing powers.  (Certainly American has such a history).  The critical question is "Where are you going with this new opportunity?".

From the Article:

Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) members of parliament were up in arms when the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) used its slim parliamentary majority to push through approval of a US$3 billion credit line from the China Development Bank (CDB) on 27 August. The NPP’s abstention and the party’s subsequent criticism of the shape of the agreement was based on a perception that the Master Facility Agreement (MFA) had been laid before the House without details of the subsidiary projects to be funded.

While the opposition is still dissatisfied with the outcome, Ghana’s multiparty democracy has produced more transparency in Chinese financing deals than has been seen in any other African resources-for-infrastructure deal. Unlike the opposition, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama is confident of Ghana’s ability to repay the loan, which will increase the country’s total public debt to nearly $25 bn.

The debt figures do not take into account the fact that the Ghanaian government will have to finance 15% of each of the projects. Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor argued that the CDB deal was less expensive than issuing a eurobond but less beneficial than World Bank or International Monetary Fund concessional financing.

The MFA calls for subsidiary agreements to detail the terms of the works to be financed by the two tranches of the $3 bn. credit line.