Chinese overseas lending / BWA
Botswana: debt owed to China
In 2021, Botswana is estimated to have owed China $445m, equal to 2.4% of its GDP, which ranks it 81 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $1.04bn in 2014.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2010, when it rose by $199m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Botswana, by year and instrument, 2000 to 2021. Zeros are estimated zeros (no known loans outstanding), not missing values. Methodology
Historical loan records from the 2021 release
These records come from the 2021 HRT Mendeley replication release, not the November 2025 refreshed stock panel charted above. The refresh uses the updated Franz, Horn, Parks, Reinhart and Trebesch methodology, so this table cannot be reconciled to the chart. The earlier release marks 9 loan-level records for Botswana as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2000 to 2009. Comparable commitments are available for 9 of those loans and sum to $892m. These are gross commitments, not outstanding debt stocks. The stock methodology applies disbursement and amortisation profiles, with imputation where loan terms are missing, so the commitment sum must not be compared with the stock above. See the methodology. Terms are sparse by source: interest rate appears on 8 loans, grace period on 5, maturity on 8, any of the three on 9, and all three together on 4. The earlier file also carries 28 additional project rows for Botswana outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | ICBC loans 825 million for Morupule B Power Station expansion project ID: BWA_30 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $825m | USD 825,000,000 | rate n/a | grace 4y | maturity 20y | Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) State-owned commercial bank | Loan Commercial · borrower SOE |
| 2006 | Eximbank loan for housing project ID: BWA_20 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $8.00m | BWP 46,642,503 | rate 3% | grace n/a | maturity 10y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2004 | Dutlwe-Morwamosu Road (Letlhakeng-Kang Phase 2) ID: BWA_17 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $16m | RMB 129,220,330 | rate 3% | grace n/a | maturity 15y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2004 | China Finances Multi-Purpose Youth Centre ID: BWA_15 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $9.50m | USD 9,500,000 | rate 0% | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) Chinese government | Loan Zero-Interest Loan · borrower Central government |
| 2003 | China loans 200 million RMB for Letlhakeng-Kang road, Phase 1 ID: BWA_12 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $24m | RMB 200,000,000 | rate 3% | grace n/a | maturity 15y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2003 | Palapye BHC Houses - 150 Houses ID: BWA_13 · Source: JH CARI | $3.00m | n/a | rate 4% | grace 4y | maturity 12y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
| 2001 | Gaborone BHC houses - 217 Houses ID: BWA_11 · Source: JH CARI | $3.00m | n/a | rate 4% | grace 4y | maturity 12y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
| 2001 | Francistown BHC Houses - 120 Houses ID: BWA_10 · Source: JH CARI | $2.00m | n/a | rate 4% | grace 4y | maturity 12y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
| 2000 | Kasane BHC houses - 86 Houses ID: BWA_9 · Source: JH CARI | $2.00m | n/a | rate 4% | grace 4y | maturity 16y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to Botswana and flagged DebtEstimateSample = 1 in that release. This is an earlier source universe, not the records used for the November 2025 refreshed stock panel. CommitmentUSD is a gross commitment flow and is not comparable to the charted stock. Commitment stays in its source currency, and ProjectDescription is rendered as free-text data from the file. Methodology
Against what Botswana reports owing to all creditors
Botswana reported $2.00bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $1.48bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 22.3% of the reported external total and 30.0% of the reported public and guaranteed stock. These are ratios of two different measurements, one estimated and one borrower-reported, and they are not a share of a single consistent total.
| Measure, 2021 | Estimated, owed China | Reported, all creditors | Ratio, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total external debt | $445m | $2.00bn | 22.3% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $445m | $1.48bn | 30.0% |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (estimated stocks), and World Bank International Debt Statistics, borrower-reported via the Debtor Reporting System (all-creditor stocks). Selection: estimated external and PPG stock owed to China in 2021 against Botswana's reported DT.DOD.DECT.CD and DT.DOD.DPPG.CD for the same year. Drawn swap balances are excluded from the estimated column: they are a central-bank liability the Debtor Reporting System's long-term-debt concepts do not carry. Methodology