Conditionality of Chinese debt

The immortal words of Peter Tosh, “everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” This better illustrates the present scenario between China and Nigeria.

Whether it’s 400, 500million or three billion dollars with a seven-year moratorium is immaterial; it started with the currency swap personally guaranteed by President Xi jinping, thus the loans may have been intricately woven into the arrangement because of the economies of scale and strategic partnership which China hardly resorts to, except it’s a special (beneficial) relationship.

China is prepared to pay a huge price to play big in our hemisphere.  There will always be clauses in business transactions, from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) because it’s necessary for investors to hedge their bets.

Nigeria emphatically has the capacity and capability to pay any debts, or in the worst case scenario, debtors like China can convert the leverage into other legal interests in the future inevitably, in form of other lucrative cherries, apart from physical assets but not limited to other specialized sectors (oil, gas, telecommunications and mining), open to privatisation, exploration and exploitation due to population, market spread and size.

We just need to eliminate the culture of waste and encourage due process, pro-activeness and promote international best practices.

Gbenga Abidoye,

abidoye4life@gmail.com

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