Uganda officials visit China to amend airport-loan clauses amid takeover
A debt-ridden Uganda has requested its all-weather ally China amend the airport-loan agreement it signed in 2015 to ensure the government does not lose control of the nation’s only international airport, Bloomberg reported.
The East African nation is on the brink of losing its only international airport to China after failing to pay back the $200 million loan it borrowed from the Export-Import Bank of China in 2015.
According to a local media newspaper, a delegation of Ugandan officials visited China to renegotiate the clauses of the loan agreement. Among the clauses the government wants to change is the need for the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority to seek approval from the Chinese lender for its budget and strategic plans. Another rule mandates that any dispute between the parties will have to be resolved by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, the Monitor reported.
On Saturday (November 27), the spokesperson for Uganda’s aviation regulator and China’s director-general for African Affairs, in separate tweets, debunked rumours that China had taken over the Entebbe International Airport.
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In a Twitter thread, UCAA spokesperson Vianney M Luggya wrote, “I wish to make it categorically clear that the allegation that Entebbe Airport has been given away for cash is false. The Government of Uganda can’t give away such a national asset. We have said it before and repeat that it has not happened. There isn’t an ounce of truth in it.”
However, a statement from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) reportedly suggested that some provisions in the Financing Agreement with China exposed Entebbe International Airport and other Ugandan assets to be attached and taken over by Chinese lenders upon arbitration in Beijing. The Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija also apologised last week to the Parliament for “mishandling” the multi-million dollar loan.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government had also dismissed reports that suggested a forcible takeover of Entebbe Airport by creating a ‘debt trap.’ China’s Director-General for African Affairs Wu Peng, who currently serves as China’s Director-General for African Affairs, dismissed such media reports as ‘illogical propaganda.
“Which of the Chinese projects in Africa have been confiscated in Africa? None!” he said.
“The hype surrounding the Chinese ‘debt trap’ in Africa have no factual basis and is being pushed on malicious grounds,” he added.
