China has agreed to loan Ghana some 13 billion dollars for infrastructure, says a minister, with Beijing having expressed interest in the West African country's newly discovered oil fields.
The loan deal, still subject to approval from Ghanian lawmakers, points to China's growing interest in the country which is set to pump its first barrels of oil by year's end from its offshore Jubilee field.
Of the total loans, three billion dollars from the China Development Bank will go towards building oil and gas infrastructure, Ghana's Deputy Finance Minister Fiifi Kwetey told AFP by phone from Beijing.
The China-Exim Bank will give nearly 10 billion dollars for the building of roads, railways, school and hospitals.
The loans are to be staggered over several years and details of repayments will be fine-tuned later, he said.
"It's not a one-off financing," he said, adding the newly discovered oil has been a "kind of attractiveness for China to support Ghana".
"China is clearly showing vast confidence about the potential of the continent," said Kwetey.
China, which recently overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy, has been searching for resources to feed its growing energy needs.
Ghana expects to start by December pumping crude from the Jubilee field, discovered three years ago and one of the biggest finds in west Africa in the past decade.
Ghana is already the world's second biggest cocoa exporter after neighbouring Ivory Coast and Africa's second largest gold producer.
The loan deals were clinched on Wednesday during a five-day visit to China by Ghana President John Atta-Mills.
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