Abstract
The continent of Africa must industrialize to eradicate poverty and create jobs for its 12 million African youth who join its workforce yearly. One of the major factors hindering industrialization has been the insufficient stock of productive infrastructure that would permit companies to thrive in industries with robust comparative advantage. Within the context of Africa-China cooperation, China has emerged as a key partner to several African nations, including financing as well as constructing large-scale infrastructure projects. With emphasis on the Tazara railway, Mombasa-Nairobi railway, and Ghana Bui hydropower dam, this paper employs backward and forward linkages theory to investigate what role these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects play in African infrastructure development and what the infrastructure investment leads to concerning creating new opportunities and businesses for Africa. The paper discovers that these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects have multiple gains and linkages for and beyond the three various projects areas. Above all, these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects were seen by the Chinese government to fulfil its goals in Africa.
Highlights
Five of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world in 2019 are in Africa, and four in SubSaharan Africa (SSA) (Deloitte, 2019)
With emphasis on the Tazara railway, Mombasa-Nairobi railway, and Ghana Bui hydropower dam, this paper employs backward and forward linkages theory to investigate what role these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects play in African infrastructure development and what the infrastructure investment leads to concerning creating new opportunities and businesses for Africa
Almost 5 percent of yearly sales are lost due to electrical outages in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); the cost of fuel for backup power generation was estimated to be at least USD 5 billion in 2012 (OECD/International Energy Agency (IEA), 2014); as a result, products are more expensive for consumers
Summary
Five of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world in 2019 are in Africa, and four in SubSaharan Africa (SSA) (Deloitte, 2019). As an economy moves up the global value chain, adapting its infrastructure can be a catalyst for promoting private activities and industrialization, and ensuring that enough employment is created for the 12 million young African youth entering the labor force yearly, attracting foreign investment in other sectors and increasing business confidence, fosters innovation and productivity, promote the manufacturing sector, skills development, integration, intra-African trade, tourism, competitiveness, economic opportunities, quality of life and leading to more trade with the rest of the world This shows that infrastructure can help propel FDI and in turn help to develop forward and backward linkages which will permit domestic companies to be better integrated into global supply chains. Massive investment in infrastructure can create the window of opportunity required to maximize profit, minimize cost, create multiplier effects and open opportunities that enable the activities of other sectors like tourism, agriculture, extractive and industrial sectors to function and, in turn, allows the continent of Africa to eradicate poverty and attain sustainable development This will help facilitate dynamic processes of technological innovation, skills development, knowledge-intensification and capital accumulation. This is relevant in the early stages of development, when provision of infrastructure generates its own linkages within the domestic economy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
