African Nations make do as China Tightens Belt And Road

China has provided billions of dollars in financing to African countries as part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) through which Chinese institutions sought to participate in the funding of key infrastructure projects, particularly in developing nations.

However, the supply of funds has dwindled in the last few years. This has brought key projects on the continent to a halt, including the new 1,000-km super-fast rail link from the port of Mombasa to Uganda.

The road now ends abruptly in the countryside, which is 468 km away from the border. To ensure some sort of completion, Kenya is resorting to finishing the route by renovating the 19th-century colonial British-built tracks that once passed that way.

China lists 39 African countries on the Belt and Road official website, ranging geographically from Tunisia to South Africa. Of the listed nations, China’s government financing is the principal creditor of only three: Congo-Brazzaville, Djibouti, and Zambia.