How China is building futures in Africa

Like many other regions across the globe, China has significantly expanded and cemented its economic footprints in Africa. A tangible evidence of Beijing’s growing role in Africa is the recent China-Africa Summit (held in Beijing from September 4 to 6), officially known as the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC).

Since its establishment in 2000, the forum has been held triennially and the latest one was the ninth such huddle between the Chinese and African leadership. Recent meetings under the FOCAC framework and subsequent agreements have revolved around the themes of industrialization, agricultural advancements, security, and cooperation regarding China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

As per China’s foreign ministry, the official summit theme was ‘Joining Hands to Advance Modernisation and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future’. At least 53 heads of state of African countries or their representatives and ministerial delegates participated in the summit. Eswatini is the only African nation which has no formal ties with China and remained absent at the forum as it is the only African country that has diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for the last 15 years as bilateral trade reached $282 billion in 2023. Since the formation of FOCAC in 2000, China has provided about $134 billion in concessional loans and development cooperation to African countries. As per Chinese sources, Chinese companies have generated about one million jobs in the continent.

While China has been investing in the continent since long, following the official launching of the BRI, Beijing has invested heavily in transport infrastructure and power generation. Overall, China has helped African countries built and upgrade about 10,000 km railways and over 100,000 km road infrastructure.

During the last two decades, Beijing has built over 6,000 km of railways and roads and has constructed about 20 ports and over 80 large power plants in Africa. Notable projects include the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Entebbe International Airport, and Doraleh Multipurpose Port in such countries as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. As more and more BRI projects are implemented in Africa, China-Africa trade and business ties as well as close people-to-people exchanges would further witness substantial growth.

In the area of digital connectivity, China has built infrastructure and today 80 per cent of Africa’s 3G network has been established by Chinese companies. Similarly, when it comes to 4G network, Chinese companies have built about 70 per cent of Africa’s 4G infrastructure. Overall, China has established over 150,000 km network in the realm of digital connectivity, benefiting about 700 million users.

Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei provides the bulk of Africa’s 4G telecommunications network. According to one Sinologist, “the largest telecommunications company in the world and at the forefront of 5G – fifth-generation cellular network technology – Huawei has become one of China’s great national champions, a symbol of its technological and commercial prowess”.

In the energy sector, China has built a total of over 1,000 large and small hydropower stations in the continent as more than 50 per cent of public funding for clean energy sector has been provided by China. In the FOCAC era alone, Beijing has helped building over 100 clean energy projects comprising wind, solar and hydro.

Africa is grappling with a severe power crisis, with over 40 per cent of its population lacking access to electricity. Particularly, a significant proportion of Africa’s unelectrified population is in sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese companies have helped fill this gap and significantly contributed to the power generation sector in sub-Saharan Africa.

Out of Africa’s 1.4 billion population, more than 640 million people on the continent or about 40 per cent Africans do have no access to energy, the lowest in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa), per capita consumption of energy is 180 kWh, compared to 6,500 kWh per capita in Europe and 13,000 kWh per capita in the US.

It is no wonder then that most African countries eagerly joined the BRI. Hence, like many other developing countries elsewhere, the BRI is an opportunity for African governments to invest in energy and transport infrastructure so that they can fulfill basic needs of their growing population. Chinese construction companies have installed over 25 GW of generation capacity in Africa, making up more than 15 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s installed generation capacity. In sum, there is no doubt that like any other region and sector, China has outperformed its Western competitors in Africa.

Besides commercial loans and investments, China has also prioritized African countries in its foreign aid programmes. In the policy and practice of foreign aid-giving, as per the 2014 white paper, from “2010 to 2012, China appropriated in total [Yuan] 89.34 billion ($14.41 billion) for foreign assistance in three types: grant, interest-free loan, and concessional loan”.

In terms of the geographical spread of Beijing’s development financing instruments, a total of 121 countries and territories benefited from its aid programmes. These included 30 countries in Asia, 51 in Africa, nine in Oceania, 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 12 governments in Europe. Hence, whether traditional foreign aid and grants or investments and commercial loans, Africa has been on the radar of Chinese policymakers and investors.

African countries have expectations from Chinese investments in infrastructure and other sectors along with “positive spill overs such as job creation, technology transfer and productivity increases”. To date, South Africa and Egypt are major countries that have MoUs with China on the BRI but other African countries such as Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Rwanda are also looking at the BRI as an opportunity to advance their industrialization, infrastructure upgradation and development process.

According to a report in China Daily, following the launching of the BRI, in 19 African countries, Beijing has funded 36 projects in the energy sector, mostly comprising hydroelectric and solar power plants, which the report claims are ‘high-impact and high-transformational’ in nature.

While there are high expectations associated with Chinese investments in Africa and elsewhere, there are also critical perspectives on several projects in many countries. For example, examining flagship infrastructure projects in important African countries including Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, in their study titled ‘China’s spatial fix and ‘debt diplomacy’ in Africa: constraining belt or road to economic transformation?’, Carmody, Taylor and Zajontz assert that “hopes for Africa’s economic transformation based on increasing connectivity under the BRI are unlikely to materialise” as some of the projects are financially unsustainable.

Economic soundness and financial as well as environmental sustainability are major challenges that Beijing must address to truly make the BRI a win-win proposition for participating countries.

The writer holds a PhD from Massey University, New Zealand. He teaches at the University of Malakand. He can be reached at:

muradali.uom@gmail.com