A refurbished hall in Yaounde looks like a gift. Read as infrastructure, China’s conference-centre diplomacy is a quieter bet on Africa’s business environment.
Section
Property
A Roof Counted Twice: China’s Africa Housing, Seen From the Household
Social housing rarely makes the China-Africa ledger. In Djibouti two parallel schemes show what the household-facing side of infrastructure actually delivers – and what it leaves uncounted.
Small and Beautiful: China Recasts Africa Deals Around Airports and Grids
Beijing once measured its Africa ledger in mega-loans. The deals it signed with Chad and Senegal in 2024 are smaller, narrower and aimed at the everyday grid.
From port to inland market: the Northern Corridor’s longer arithmetic
Mombasa to the interior is the showcase corridor. The harder economics sit in the dry-season roads of Kenya’s north, where a day’s trip should take hours.
Small towns on the line: corridor infrastructure as a growth enabler
Flagship corridors are sold by capital-city endpoints. The quieter story is what happens to the towns the road passes through on the way.
Bridges as Multipliers: Mozambique’s 3km Span and Its 4% Debt
Africa’s longest suspension bridge cut a six-hour journey to 90 minutes across Maputo Bay. It also left Mozambique repaying a US$785m loan at 4% – a multiplier of commerce, and of debt.
Roads First: How 100,000km of Chinese-Built Tarmac Reshaped Africa
China’s foreign ministry counts nearly 100,000km of highways built across Africa. The headline rail projects get the attention – but roads, quieter and more numerous, did the heavier lifting.
TAZARA Reborn: A US$1.4bn Bet on Reviving Africa’s Mao-Era Railway
China built TAZARA in the 1970s as a gift of solidarity, then watched it decay. A US$1.4bn deal now revives the line – this time as a 30-year commercial concession, not a present.
Abuja Light Rail: A Capital’s Metro That Opened, Stalled, Then Reopened
Nigeria’s capital launched the country’s first urban rail in 2018. It then sat largely idle for years before service resumed in 2024.