[Suspended] China Eximbank provides RMB 1.24 billion loan for Phase 1 of Mamamah International Airport Project (Linked to Project ID#70476 and ID#73306)

In October 2011, China Eximbank reportedly pledged to fund the Mamamah International Airport Construction Project. This project would have involved the construction of Mamamah International Airport in the capital city of Freetown. Then, on December 13, 2012, the Government of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Transport and Aviation awarded a commercial contract to China Railway International Limited for the project. China Railway International Limited, in turn, made China Railway Seventh Group responsible for implementation. The project was to be financed and implemented in two phases. China Eximbank agreed in principle to provide a $200 million for Phase 1 and a $115 million loan for Phase 2. According to the Auditor General of Sierra Leone, the Government of Sierra Leone and the China Railway International Limited signed a supplier credit agreement worth RMB 17,773,471.16 for Phase 1 on May 22, 2013. Then, on February 8, 2018, the Government of Sierra Leone and China Eximbank signed an RMB 1,240,000,000 for Phase 1. The project officially commenced on March 1, 2018. However, after Julius Maada Bio came to power as the President of Sierra Leone on April 4, 2018, the Government of Sierra Leone withdrew its support for this project. The IMF and World Bank also raised debt sustainability concerns about this project. Then, in October 2018, the Government of Sierra Leone announced plans to suspend the project. The country’s aviation ministry announced that it was “uneconomical to proceed with the construction of a new airport when the existing one is grossly underutilized. As of October 2019, the project remained in a state of suspension. The Government of Sierra Leone instead decided to renovate the existing airport in Lungi. The China Eximbank loan for Phase 1 is captured in Project ID#62259. The supplier credit from China Railway International Limited is captured in Project ID#73306. The China Eximbank loan pledge for Phase 2 is captured in Project ID#70476.

Additional details

The Chinese project title is 塞拉利昂新机场项目 or 塞拉利昂新弗里敦国际机场项目. AidData assumes that the supplier credit from China Railway International Limited and the loan from China Eximbank for Phase 1 were both suspended.

Number of official sources

11

Number of total sources

18