In overlooking the overriding context for China’s seeming largess, the One Belt, One Road policy of President Xi Jinping, many who hail the largess coming through him miss the point: Context provides meaning.
In 2015, $50bn was pledged by China to the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation and in 2018, it has been jacked up to $60bn, and by 2021, it may hit $100bn.
Africa sees cheap funds for projects and the seeming benevolence of President Xi, but what are the Chinese seeing from their end to open up their purse strings?
I see dependence and addiction to cheap loans by Africa and the need not to make any structural adjustments to economies because they can fall back on China.
Nigeria for instance currently spends 90 per cent of its annual budget on recurrent expenditures with the Federal Government having over 1,000 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, many simply are drain pipes.
Currently, 60 per cent of Nigerian government revenues are spent on debt servicing while 20 per cent of oil revenues which constitute 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings are used to pay for fuel subsidies.
China has a policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of these African nations seeking funding unlike Western donor nations and their funding institutions which usually ask for structural reforms.
So, when these African nations piling up cheap loans run aground, they can only turn to China for additional bailout which comes at a steep cost like in Sri Lanka or Zambia.
I see what has become of Sri Lanka where a strategic port with its accompanying 15,000 hectares of land has been taken over for 100 years by a Chinese company due to rising indebtedness to China.
I see the decision of Malaysia to cancel over $22bn of Chinese-funded railway projects and their resolve to not take loans they can’t pay for as that will make the country unduly reliant on China.
I see what is happening in Zambia where China has taken over the State TV and Radio companies and now its power generating company because of rising indebtedness.
I see that these projects being funded by China are being built by Chinese companies using Chinese technology, materials and personnel creating a sense of total dependency.
I see that there is no technology transfer to African countries in these projects which mainly rely on average Chinese technology meaning that Africa countries can’t pull the plug on these projects should they want to.
I see projects being built by the Chinese that are mostly going to be run by African state agencies and that will most likely never be profitable and be taken over by Chinese companies as in Sri Lanka and Zambia.
I see African leaders going cup in hand to beg the Chinese for funding grand projects which boost their profiles locally and seemingly give the impression to their local populations of development.
I don’t see job creation for the teeming African youths or even the general labour workforce other than those engaged as construction workers or those that will be doing menial jobs.
I don’t see these Chinese projects fitting into a larger African or countrywide economic development plan that will sustainably change the fortunes of these countries and in turn Africa.
I don’t see from the perspective of the African leaders, the same long term planning and strategising that China is taking in offering these cheap funds that tie into its grand plans for the One Belt, One Road policy.
I don’t see the economic initiatives coming from these African leaders but once more Africa being positioned to be on the receiving end of development initiatives this time from Beijing and not London, Washington and Paris.
As the victorious nations after World War 2, America came up with the Marshall Plan that allowed her to develop the rest of the world in its image and likeness.
Now, it is the turn of China, who without firing a bullet has come up with its One Belt, One Road policy to also develop the world in its image and likeness.
This is the big picture; this is the overriding context in which African countries are only seeing bridges, roads, railways, airports, stadia, power generating stations etc.
Kingsley Omose, Uromi, Edo State
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