China is the largest creditor of eight African countries eligible for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), according to a study recently published by the think tank Green Finance & Development Center.

Of the nearly $53 billion, $14 billion will go to China's coffers. Beijing will therefore pocket 26% of the total debt service to be paid by the 68 poorest countries in the world this year. The think tank Green Finance & Development Center states that Beijing holds 55%, 42% and 34% of the debt of Djibouti, the Republic of Congo and Angola respectively. The other countries on the continent where the Middle Kingdom is the largest creditor are Guinea (32% of the total debt stock), Comoros (31%), Cameroon (29%), Zambia (25%) and Togo (24%). It should be noted that in 2020, China had supported the G20 debt relief plan for the world's poorest countries, agreeing to defer the repayment of 5.7 billion dollars of debt between May 2020 and December 2021.