{"id":18665,"date":"2022-01-25T17:56:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T22:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/?page_id=18665"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:57:06","slug":"chinese-loans-to-africa-database-data-download","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/chinese-loans-to-africa-database-data-download\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Loans to Africa Database &#8211; Data Download"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022-636x358.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022-636x358.png 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2022\/04\/CLA-Database-2022.png 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/chinese-loans-to-africa-database\/\">Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database<\/a> is an interactive data project tracking loan commitments from Chinese development finance institutions, commercial banks, government entities and companies to African governments, state-owned enterprises and regional institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The CLA Database was started by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-CARI). As of March 29, 2021, the CLA Database is managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center. The GDP Center is a University-wide center in partnership with the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. The GDP Center\u2019s mission is to advance policy-oriented research for financial stability, human well-being and environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>Starting in 2007, researchers have collected, cleaned and analyzed publicly available data to create a database on Chinese lending to Africa. The data sources include official government documents, contractor websites, fieldwork, interviews and media sources.<\/p>\n<p>The CLA Database estimates that from 2000-2024, 42 Chinese lenders signed 1,319 loan commitments amounting to $180.87 billion with 49 African governments and seven regional institutions.<\/p>\n<p>CLA Database loan amounts are not equivalent to African government debt, as the database tracks commitments, and not disbursement, repayments or defaults.<\/p>\n<h5>Resources:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/2025\/11\/13\/selective-engagement-and-strategic-retooling-chinese-loans-to-africa-database-2000-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Read the 2026 policy brief<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/2024\/08\/21\/relative-risk-and-the-rate-of-return-chinese-loans-to-africa-database-2000-2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Read the 2024 policy brief<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/2023\/08\/18\/a-new-state-of-lending-chinese-loans-to-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read the 2023 policy brief<\/a><\/strong><\/em><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For information on the database methodology, refer to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For the years 2020 and onwards, the<span>\u00a0<\/span><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/2021\/03\/23\/gdp-center-database-methodology-guidebook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GDP Center Database Methodology Guidebook<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li>or the years 2000-2019, the<span>\u00a0<\/span><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/2021\/03\/26\/twenty-years-of-data-on-chinas-africa-lending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SAIS-CARI Methodology Guidebook<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Suggested citation<\/strong>:<\/h5>\n<p>Boston University Global Development Policy Center. 2025. Chinese Loans to Africa Database. Retrieved from http:\/\/bu.edu\/gdp\/chinese-loans-to-africa-database.<\/p>\n<h5>Contact:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>For data inquiries, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:gdpdata@bu.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gdpdata@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>For media inquiries, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:gdpmedia@bu.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gdpmedia@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/files\/2026\/02\/CLA-Database-Raw-Data-Public-2025-FIN.xlsx\" class=\"button\">Download the Data<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database is an interactive data project tracking loan commitments from Chinese development finance institutions, commercial banks, government entities and companies to African governments, state-owned enterprises and regional institutions. The CLA Database was started by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-CARI). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18327,"featured_media":20198,"parent":0,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18665"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32406,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18665\/revisions\/32406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/gdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}