Resource-Backed Loans: Pitfalls and Potential
To finance their progress, developing countries must inevitably find ways to overcome challenges. One major issue that these countries face is that investors often perceive developing countries as carrying a high financial risk, which limits their ability to access to international capital markets. In the natural resource boom that started at the turn of the millennium, a new financing model has become a popular way to circumvent these risks. In this financing model—called “resource-backed loans” (RBLs)—countries access finance in exchange for, or collateralized by, future streams of income from their natural resource wealth. Through “resource-backed loans” (RBLs) countries access finance in exchange for, or collateralized by, future streams of income from their natural resource wealth. The authors of this report reviewed countries’ past experiences with RBLs across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America from 2004 to 2018. They identify risks and opportunities RBLs pose and provide recommendations for countries considering taking RBLs in the future. The researchers identified 52 RBLs, 30 of which were taken by countries in in sub-Saharan Africa and 22 in Latin America. They are distributed across 14 countries in the two regions.
