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.
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.
Addis Ababa Transit: A Metro Built for the Industrial City It Awaited
The light rail’s southern line was routed deliberately toward factory districts. The transit arrived; the industrial boom it anticipated arrived more slowly.