China’s growing inroads in Western Africa

China’s expansionist approach throughout the African continent has been much debated across various international platforms. Its financial contributions to the African region in the past couple of decades have substantially increased many-folds and has made the Chinese state amongst the largest contributor and lender to the continent.

However, in the varied discussions and debates that have taken place regarding such expansionist tendencies, an aspect that has received little to no attention has been the overarching effects of the Chinese state’s expansion throughout the West African region.

Historically, Western Africa had mostly been dominated and influenced by the French for centuries. This influence is on decline amid the increase of Chinese presence in the overall continent. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has tipped the balance to their favour.

Chinese firms in the continent, currently, have strategically forged infrastructural projects based on rail, roads and port developments through the BRI schemes. This has invariably led to host countries being lured into seeking financial loans from Chinese infrastructural banks that have disbursed them at a high-interested commercial level rate; thereby, also at the same time pushing them into similar crisis that countries like Sri Lanka face today- defaulting on their repayment of loans and borrowings.

Western Africa countries however have received a far more noteworthy portion of Chinese economic assistance as compared to the rest of the region; more specifically in the past couple of years specially. Countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Togo and Gambia have been on the receiving end of such a transactional relationship with the Chinese dragon, experts on Africa allege.

Ghana’s loan intake from China represented an astounding 12% of its total external debt while for Togo it represented a far higher figure of 14.7 % of its total GDP in 2018. These figures have been predicted to increase for the worse since then and have caused widespread concern in the financial ecosystems within the countries.

Another country that has received quite a substantial amount of Chinese attention and economic aid in western Africa has been the geographically strategic nation of Senegal. Although, one could specify various reasons for China’s extra push for engagement with the Senegalese, a prominent explanation that stands tall amongst the others is perhaps that Senegal is seen by Beijing as a gateway to the resourceful Western African region. Its location between the Saharan and sub-Saharan region makes it the ideal geographical location to attract Chinese interests.

Within Senegal, China has been initiating various developmental projects with the promise of a higher return post the completion of the project that can be used to pay off the loans and their interests. Yet, for policymakers in Senegal who have been paying close attention to Chinese methods of functioning, it would be well advised to take valuable lessons from China’s other white elephant projects that have failed to generate even break-even revenues.

A recently agreed upon project on a highway running from Daker and Djibouti may have invoked widespread political support for Chinese investments due to its trans-African connectivity, yet it has been predicted to reach a similar end as the other over-valued Chinese infrastructure projects.

This project in specific however has granted China access to various western African country’s resources, which in a way also helps identify China’s true motives for large-scale financial aids- access to large amounts of untapped natural resources.

“Riding high on the back of a population boom and an expanding economy, West Africa offers tremendous opportunities for cooperation. China has stepped up its presence in West Africa, considerably, over the years. Industries, transport infrastructure projects, financing deals, cooperation in special economic zones, cultural exchanges, and educational partnerships stand as beaming symbols of Beijing’s expanding footprint in West Africa. Ghana also hosts a regional office of the China Africa Development (CAD) Fund, which is China’s main vehicle for overseas investment in the continent.

In many of the projects, Chinese companies have entered into joint ventures with local organizations to navigate laws and regulations and cultural differences. The problem that I envisage is increasing indebtedness which can male the recipient countries subservient to China,” according to Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International, a leading public policy body which has chapters across Africa.

In 2019, China signed a memorandum worth $2 billion with Ghana for rail and road bridge networks which was accompanied by a commitment of funding 100 vehicles for the Ghana Police Service with an approximate 300 million yuan grant as well as a 250-million- yuan debt write-off.

All of this was agreed upon by the Chinese side for one sole purpose- access to 5 % of Ghana’s bauxite reserves; which needless to say is a crucial source for aluminium. Moreover, the deal was penned with China’s notorious state-owned hydropower enterprise- Sinohydro who has gained subsequent access to the minerals. Sinohydro, for all its ability to construct key strategic infrastructure projects, has usually been on the receiving end from environmental protection groups and have been accused of hampering the ecological balance of sensitive regions for self-motivating purposes.

There are serious concerns that the mining of bauxite and other minerals in the mountainous forestland would pollute the major rivers in the region that provide drinking water to three regions in the country. A corresponding deal was also agreed upon with the Guinean government in power for a set of $20 billion loans spanning across two decades in exchange for access to bauxite reserves in the country’s geographical territory.

Ghana’s worries with Chinese partnership do not end with their financial ties with the nation; Ghana has been facing a severe anti-Chinese sentimental crisis due to excessive inflow of migrant workers from the country. This has also been largely fuelled by the illegal gold mining the Chinese migrants have been found indulging into, causing a substantial threat of instability to the region that has historically witnessed widespread bloodshed due to its illegal gold mines. Thus, this has caused a significant amount of worry in the power corridors of many western African nations, as they do not wish to see a spread of the instability into their own courtyards due to a shared violent history pertaining to illegal resource extraction.