THE FOUR-LANE, 62-km toll road being built between Masiaka, a business hub in Sierra Leone, and Freetown, the countrys capital, promises shorter journey times, fewer accidents and smoother drives. It is nonetheless controversial. Awarded to China Railway Seventh Group, the project added over $160m to the countrys foreign debt, according to the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University. The work has suffered delays, which the company blames on the pandemic and the need to compensate property owners, reports the Concord Times, a local newspaper. The firm has also complained that some lorries pass by the toll booths, not through them.
Projects like these have mushroomed across Africa and other developing countri…
Read the full article at: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/07/04/the-poorest-countries-may-owe-less-to-china-than-first-thought
