Japan is considering offering low-cost loans to African countries to support debt management and provide an alternative financing option amid shifting global aid and investment patterns.
Japan is preparing to expand its support for African nations by offering low-cost public loans to help reduce the burden of expensive debt repayments. According to the Financial Times, Tokyo aims to redirect repayments from loans in Southeast Asia—where many economies are now self-sustaining—towards Africa, where debt servicing costs have reached their highest levels in two decades.
The initiative comes as Western aid budgets shrink and African governments face mounting pressure from high-interest borrowing, much of it linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. By converting high-cost debt into concessional, low-interest loans, Japan hopes to stabilise African economies while providing an alternative to Beijing’s lending model. Officials from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) emphasised that this strategy reflects Japan’s long-standing development-first approach.
While Japan’s foreign direct investment in Africa remains modest compared with China’s, Tokyo has invested in over 80 infrastructure projects across the continent since 1993. At Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Japan sought to reinforce its role as a reliable partner—one focused on financial stability, capacity building, and smaller-scale projects where it can make a distinct impact.
