Uganda’s largest power plant came online in 2024, doubling effective capacity. The wager is that 600 MW of Chinese-built hydropower can pull industry into a country that does not yet need it.
Section
Property
Bui Dam: How Ghana Bought 400 MW on Commercial Terms From China
Ghana built the Bui hydropower dam to escape blackouts. Its US$292 million Chinese loan carried a 6.1 per cent rate and no grant element – a power-capacity story priced like a mortgage.
The Hall as Hard Asset: China’s Conference Centres and the Business Climate
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.
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.