Chinese overseas lending / SEN
Senegal: debt owed to China
In 2021, Senegal is estimated to have owed China $2.19bn, equal to 8.0% of its GDP, which ranks it 43 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $2.19bn in 2021.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2018, when it rose by $427m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Senegal, 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 10 loan-level records for Senegal as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2005 to 2016. Comparable commitments are available for 10 of those loans and sum to $1.61bn. 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 1 loans, grace period on 1, maturity on 1, any of the three on 1, and all three together on 1. The earlier file also carries 30 additional project rows for Senegal outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Building and Rehabilitating 251 wells; 1800km pipeline ID: SEN_39 · Source: JH CARI | $79m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | Thies Touba Toll Highway ID: SEN_38 · Source: JH CARI | $689m | n/a | rate 2% | grace 5y | maturity 25y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | Mbour-Blaise-Diagne International Airport (AIBD) Road ID: SEN_36 · Source: JH CARI | $331m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | National Broadband Network ID: SEN_37 · Source: JH CARI | $82m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | Gouina Hydropower Project (Senegal Portion) ID: SEN_34 · Source: JH CARI | $146m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
| 2012 | China implements security project in Senegal ID: SEN_32 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $33m | USD 33,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2010 | 28km Dakar Loop Power Transmission Projects; 4x90kV (360kV); Phase II ID: SEN_26 · Source: JH CARI | $78m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2009 | China loans Senegal 23 million USD for bus renovation ID: SEN_24 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $23m | USD 23,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2007 | China constructs power transmission lines ID: SEN_22 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $49m | RMB 370,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2005 | China assists Senegal in building e-government network ID: SEN_15 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $100m | USD 100,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to Senegal 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 Senegal reports owing to all creditors
Senegal reported $30.68bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $16.92bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 7.1% of the reported external total and 12.9% 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 | $2.19bn | $30.68bn | 7.1% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $2.17bn | $16.92bn | 12.9% |
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 Senegal'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
Chinese restructurings involving Senegal
1 deal recorded between Senegal and Chinese state creditors. These are context, not accounting: the source records face-value reduction as a flag rather than a magnitude, so no haircut percentage exists for them, and nothing here is netted off the estimated stock above.
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
China Ex-Im Bank extends a grace period extension on a RMB 531 million loan to the Government of Senegal for Phase 2 of the 90kV Dakar Electricity Distribution Network Rehabilitation and Extension Project. The original terms of the China Ex-Imbank loan were as follows: 20-year maturity, 7 year grace period, and a 2% interest rate. The exact length of the grace period extension is unknown.
AidData 2.0
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, Hidden Defaults (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9925). Selection: every recorded restructuring agreement between Senegal and a Chinese state creditor. Face-value reduction is a 0/1 flag in the source, not a percentage; the badge appears only where the source sets it. Methodology