Seven lenders, side by side
China is owed USD 82.2 bn by 46 African governments at the end of 2024, 1.9 times what the other six are owed together (USD 43.0 bn). Among the 5 lenders that report their aid to the OECD, United States committed the most to African recipients over 2018–2024, USD 136.2 bn in 53 countries, 94% of it as grants; Turkey the least, USD 0.73 bn, 35% of it to Somalia.
The strategies differ more than the sums. Germany puts the largest share of its aid into things that get built, 28%; United States the smallest, 9%. Turkey is the most concentrated, with 53% of its aid in three countries, led by Somalia; United States spreads widest, 23%. China's USD 222 bn of infrastructure commitments over 2000–2023, 96% of them loans, sit beside the others on their own scale; Russia reports no aid at all, so it appears only where debt is counted. Pick lenders, a region or a country, a year and a measure below: every map, chart and table follows.
World Bank International Debt Statistics to 2024 (release of 3 Dec 2025) · OECD CRS 2018–2024, DAC2a to 2024, FDI positions to 2024 · AidData 2000–2023 · packs fetched 14 Oct 2026 · no creditor data for Libya, Namibia, Seychelles, South Sudan
- USD 82.2 bn
- owed to China by 46 governments at the end of 2024; the largest of the seven creditors in 38 countries
- USD 136.2 bn
- committed by United States to African recipients over 2018–2024, the most of the 5 OECD reporters, across 53 countries
- 28%
- of Germany's aid builds something, the largest share; United States's is 9%
- 53%
- of Turkey's aid goes to three countries, the most concentrated; United States is the most spread, 23%
Where the money goes
One small map per lender, the same measure on each. With share of the lender's total, the darkest country on every map is that lender's largest counterpart, so the maps compare priorities; with USD, one scale, they compare size, and a small lender's map goes pale. Switch to who leads where to colour each country by the lender with the largest figure there.
Focused or spread
How much of each lender's figure sits in its three largest counterparts, and how many countries it reaches at all. A high bar is a lender with a few favourites; a low one, a lender that is everywhere.
What they fund
Each row is one lender's aid commitments split by the DAC's sector headings, as a share of its total; darker is more. Read across a row for a lender's priorities, down a column for who cares about a sector. The sources do not split purposes by country, so this grid is Africa-wide whatever the scope above.
Five lenders report every activity to the OECD's Creditor Reporting System; their packs keep the fourteen largest purposes, which cover 100% of the United States's; 100% of Turkey's; 100% of Italy's; 100% of Germany's; 100% of the European Union's commitments, and the rest is the last column. China's row is AidData's record of official commitments to infrastructure, 2000–2023, in constant 2023 dollars, so it has no humanitarian, budget or debt-relief column by construction. Russia reports to neither.
How they lend
Grants or loans, money that builds or money that pays for services, and who is paid to deliver it. These are each lender's whole African portfolio: the sources do not split them by country.
Grants, loans and the rest
Share of each lender's aid. Loans are ODA loans; the rest is other official flows, equity and private-sector instruments.
Money that builds something
Share of commitments on transport, energy, communications, water, and facilities, or whose title says construct, renovate, drill.
Who delivers it
Share of each lender's activities by the channel that receives the money, from the six most common channels each pack keeps.
How it moved
The stock each lender is owed by the governments in scope, year by year since 2000, and the net aid the OECD reporters disbursed to them since 2010. Hover for every lender's figure in a year.
Owed to each lender
Public and publicly guaranteed external debt, end of each year, current US dollars. World Bank International Debt Statistics.
Net ODA disbursed
Net official development assistance by recipient, current prices, OECD DAC2a. With the whole continent in scope, the regional rows the OECD does not assign to a country are included.
The seven in one table
The figures behind the page for the scope and years chosen above. Each name opens the lender's profile, where the same data sits with its sources and tables.
| Lender | Owed to it, 2024 | Debtor states | Largest creditor in | Aid committed | Recipient states | Largest recipient | Builds things | Grants | Net ODA 2024 | FDI stock 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | 3.7 | 21 | 2 | 5.0 2018–2024 | 53 | Somalia 19% | 26% | 53% of money | 0.8 | 29.9 |
| Turkey | 0.6 | 8 | 0 | 0.7 2018–2024 | 53 | Somalia 35% | 15% | 91% of money | 0.1 | 2.6 |
| China | 82.2 | 46 | 38 | 222.2 2000–2023 | 52 | Angola 14% | all, by construction | 4% of money | – | – |
| European Union | 13.8 | 43 | 6 | 66.0 2018–2024 | 53 | Egypt 21% | 25% | 63% of money | 5.5 | – |
| Russia | 4.5 | 12 | 1 | not reported | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| United States | 6.8 | 19 | 1 | 136.2 2018–2024 | 53 | Ethiopia 9% | 9% | 94% of money | 15.8 | 43.2 |
| Germany | 13.6 | 23 | 1 | 48.0 2018–2024 | 53 | Morocco 11% | 28% | 70% of money | 4.6 | 14.7 |
How to read this page
- What is compared
- The seven lenders with a profile on this site, each on the measures its profile already holds. Nothing is fetched for this page: it re-cuts the profiles' packs and the debt pack, so a figure here is the same figure there. Owed to the lender is the World Bank's International Debt Statistics series by creditor (
DT.DOD.DPPG.CD): every African government's public and publicly guaranteed external debt to that lending country, its government and its banks together, at the end of each year, 2000–2024. The European Union is the European Investment Bank plus the EU budget, the European Development Fund and the old EEC loans. Libya, Namibia, Seychelles, South Sudan do not report to the World Bank and have no creditor figures. - Aid committed
- For Italy, Turkey, Germany, the United States and the EU institutions: every activity with an African recipient in the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, 2018–2024, commitments in current dollars (disbursements where no commitment is stated). For China: AidData's China's Global Loans and Grants Dataset 1.0, official commitments to infrastructure projects only, 2000–2023, in constant 2023 dollars. The two are not the same thing and the page never adds them: with USD, one scale China's maps share a colour scale with the others only so their sizes can be seen together. Russia publishes no activity-level aid data.
- Net ODA and FDI
- OECD DAC2a net disbursements by recipient (measure 206, current prices), 2010–2024, for the five OECD reporters; OECD outward direct-investment positions by partner country (BMD4, immediate counterpart), 2015–2024, for Italy, Turkey, the United States and Germany. The EU institutions have no FDI reporter; China and Russia publish neither series in this form.
- Share of the lender's total
- On the maps, each country's figure divided by the lender's sum over the countries in scope, so every lender's largest counterpart is drawn at full strength. USD, one scale uses the largest single figure among the lenders shown instead. The sector and channel grids are always shares of a lender's whole African total: the sources do not break purposes or channels down by country.
- Who leads where
- Each country takes the colour and the badge of the lender, among those selected, with the largest figure there for the measure and year chosen. A country where none of the selected lenders has a figure above zero stays uncoloured.
- Sectors
- DAC purpose codes folded into the DAC's own headings by their leading digits: 11 education, 12 and 13 health and population, 14 water, 15 government and civil society, 16 other social, 21 transport, 22 communications, 23 energy, 24, 25 and 33 banking, business and trade, 31 agriculture, 32 industry and mining, 41 and 43 environment and multisector, 51 to 53 and 60 budget support, food aid and debt relief, 7 humanitarian. The packs keep each lender's fourteen largest purposes, which cover 100% of the United States's; 100% of Turkey's; 100% of Italy's; 100% of Germany's; 100% of the European Union's commitments; the remainder is one column. AidData's own sector names are mapped onto the same headings for China.
- Builds something
- The share of a lender's commitments in the "hard" subset the profiles define: purpose codes 14, 21, 22 and 23 (water, transport, communications, energy) plus education facilities and basic health infrastructure, or a title or description that says construct, renovate, rehabilitate, drill, road, bridge, hospital, clinic, irrigation. AidData's dataset is infrastructure by definition, so China's share is not computed.
- Grants and loans
- Shares of each lender's aid by the OECD's measure (ODA grants, ODA loans, other official flows, equity and private-sector instruments). A pack fetched after October 2026 carries the money by measure and the share is of dollars; an older pack carries only the count of activities, and the row says so. China's split is AidData's loans and grants in dollars.
- Colours
- One hue per lender, fixed on every chart, from a categorical order checked for colour-blind separation of neighbours in both themes; China, the European Union and the United States keep the hues of the debt section's creditor groups. No mark relies on colour alone: every bar, line end and country carries the lender's name or badge, and the table restates everything. The grids use one hue, darker for more.
- Reproduce
python3 build_compare.pyreadsdata/donors/*.jsonanddata/debt.jsonand writes this page anddocs/data/compare.json, the payload the page draws. The view is in the address bar (#l=china,eu&s=east&m=debt&y=2020), so a view can be shared.