China far ahead of US and West in infrastructure funding for Sub-Saharan Africa, study finds
- Think tank’s review of 535 deals in 2007-20 shows Chinese banks provided more than twice the amount from US, German, French and Japanese lenders combined
- Western nations slow to pump up investments despite ‘much rhetoric’, lead author of study says
The Centre for Global Development said a review of 535 public-private infrastructure deals funded in the region in the years reviewed showed that China’s investments dwarfed those of other governments and multilateral development banks.
Nancy Lee, lead author of the paper and a senior policy fellow at the centre, said overall public funding for projects in Sub-Saharan Africa remained stuck at around US$9 billion, well short of what the region needed for roads, dams and bridges.
“There is a lot of criticism of China,” she said. “But if Western governments want to boost productive and sustainable investments to meaningful levels, they need to deploy their own development banks and press the multilateral development banks to make these investments a priority.”
Between 2007 and 2020, China Exim Bank and China Development Bank provided US$23 billion in financing, while all other major development finance institutions combined provided US$9.1 billion, the report found.
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Multilateral development banks like the World Bank were found to have provided just US$1.4 billion per year on average for public-private infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2016-20.