China sets to takeover Uganda international airport over bad loans
The African country may have to hand over its only international airport to China as part of the terms of a loan agreement.
Uganda may have to surrender its only international airport, Entebbe international airport to China as dictated by the terms of a loan the country signed with the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of China in 2015. The state’s officials have been seeking to renegotiate the unfavorable parts of that agreement with China recently without success which may mean the airport will have to be surrendered to China eventually.
Under normal circumstances, the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) would have been able to protect its asset through the protection of the state’s sovereign immunity but the state waived the immunity on airport assets in the 2015 deal. The attempts by Ugandan officials to renegotiate those terms continue to be rebuffed by the Chinese Exim Bank, leaving the Ugandan state in limbo on the matter.
This loan deal going ugly plays into the theme of the debilitating loans that the United States Secretary of State alluded to earlier this month about China tying African countries to funding agreements that are not so profitable for the continent over the long term.
Add Comment