April 16, 2012. Ghana signed a $1 billion lending agreement with China Development Bank Corp. as part of the biggest loan in the country's history that Vice President John Dramani Mahama said would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and develop natural gas. Ghana signed an $850 million agreement for a gas project between the Ghana National Gas Co. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. in Beijing and the rest for information technology projects, Mahama said. The total amount of the loan will eventually be $3 billion and Ghana will send China 13,000 barrels of oil a day that will be sold at market price on the day, he said. China is Africa's largest trading partner and has signed agreements worth billions of dollars with governments on the continent, seeking natural resources to feed its economic growth in exchange for building roads and railways, and nurturing a market for its products. The Ghanaian oil is not being used as collateral for the loan, Mahama said. The money will not be paid off using the country's natural resources, he said.