Chinese overseas lending / TZA
Tanzania: debt owed to China
In 2021, Tanzania is estimated to have owed China $2.22bn, equal to 3.1% of its GDP, which ranks it 42 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $2.78bn in 2018.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2015, when it rose by $593m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Tanzania, 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 14 loan-level records for Tanzania as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2002 to 2015. Comparable commitments are available for 14 of those loans and sum to $3.13bn. 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 2 loans, grace period on 1, maturity on 4, any of the three on 5, and all three together on 0. The earlier file also carries 119 additional project rows for Tanzania outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | CDB provides loan to bolster Tanzania's foreign exchange reserves ID: TZA_133 · Source: JH CARI | $200m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central bank |
| 2014 | China loans Tanzania 136 million USD for wind power project ID: TZA_127 · Source: AidData | $136m | USD 136,000,000 | 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 |
| 2013 | Military residential housing project ID: TZA_124 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $285m | 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 | China Exim provides 200 million USD loan for port in Zanzibar ID: TZA_119 · Source: AidData | $200m | USD 200,000,000 | rate n/a | grace 5y | maturity 30y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | EXIM Bank Loans $403 Million USD for National ICT Broad Infrastructure Project Phase 3 ID: TZA_123 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $94m | USD 94,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | China Loans 73.85 million USD to Zanzibar for Karume Airport ID: TZA_120 · Source: AidData | $77m | RMB 480,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity 30y | Unspecified Chinese government agency Unspecified Chinese government agency | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2012 | China Loans Tanzania 1.2 billion USD to Construct the Mtwara-Dar Es Salaam Gas Pipeline ID: TZA_114 · Source: AidData, BU Energy, JH CARI | $1.23bn | USD 1,230,000,000 | rate 2% | grace n/a | maturity 33y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower SOE |
| 2012 | 524 million USD loan for the expansion of Dar es Salaam Port ID: TZA_110 · Source: AidData | $523m | USD 523,131,016 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2011 | China EXIM Bank loans Zanzibar 70 million USD to expand Karume Airport on Pemba Island ID: TZA_107 · Source: AidData | $70m | USD 70,000,000 | 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 |
| 2011 | Preferential Loans for Mobile Telecom Network Construction ID: TZA_109 · Source: AidData | $65m | USD 65,000,000 | 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 |
| 2010 | EXIM Bank Loans 700 Million CNY for National ICT Broad Infrastructure Project Phase 2 ID: TZA_104 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $103m | RMB 700,000,000 | 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 | China Loans 481 Million CNY to Upgrade Zanzibar International Airport Terminal II ID: TZA_99 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $71m | RMB 481,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity 30y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2008 | EXIM Bank Loans $70 million USD for National Fibre-Optic Backbone Phase 1 ID: TZA_92 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $70m | USD 70,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2002 | Dodoma Water Project ID: TZA_67 · Source: JH CARI | $4.00m | n/a | rate 0% | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) Chinese government | Loan Zero-Interest Loan · borrower Central government |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to Tanzania 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 Tanzania reports owing to all creditors
Tanzania reported $28.82bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $18.94bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 7.7% of the reported external total and 11.7% 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 | $2.22bn | $28.82bn | 7.7% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $2.22bn | $18.94bn | 11.7% |
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 Tanzania'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