President Tinubu delivering his speech, with Presidents Bio and Ramaphosa listening with rapt attention.
*The Economic Relations Now At $280 Billion
Abubakar Hashim
The Forum for China-Africa Cooperation FOCAC, ongoing in China, has resulted in China dolling out $50 billion to Africa, mainly for infrastructural activities in critical areas of the continent’s economy.
The total amount dolled out to Africa amounted to $280 billion so far since FOCAC was established 24 years ago in 2000.
China, the world’s second-largest economy after the US, partners with Africa, through concessional loan agreements, either through cash or resource-swapped agreements, for critical infrastructure like roads, airports, seaports, railways and other utilities Africa is seriously lagging behind other continents..
FOCAC is held every 3 years on a rotational basis, between the host, China and any other African country.
This year’s confab eyes four key leaders in the continent, Nigeria’s President Tinubu as ECOWAS Chair, Sierra Leone’s President Bio as Chair of UN Security Council August session, (with his robust speech for Africa’s representation), South Africa’s President Ramaphosa (due to ongoing reforms) and Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai, (for smooth political transition and his robust economic reforms).
The US and other Western nations see FOCAC as a threat to their long-standing economic interest in Africa.
The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is an official forum between the People’s Republic of China and all states in Africa with the exception of the Kingdom of Eswatini. It is the primary multi-lateral coordination mechanism between African countries and China and since 2018 is viewed by those countries as a cooperation platform within the Belt and Road Initiative (known in China as the One Belt One Road and sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, it is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations).
According to Dawn C. Murphy (2022), in his work, China’s Rise in the Global South: the Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order, FOCAC is the primary multi-lateral coordination mechanism between African countries and China. “Along with the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), FOCAC was one of the first regional organizations established by China outside its territorial periphery. Since 2018, China and the African states explicitly view FOCAC as a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”
He went further that as of 2022, the members of FOCAC were 53 African countries (all except Eswatini), China, and the African Union Commission. A number of North African states are dual members of both CASCF and FOCAC: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia. Although the African Union has increasingly played a coordinating role since joining CASCF in 2012, each African state represents itself in FOCAC and activities are implemented bilaterally between China and individual African countries.
Also, David H. Shinn, and Joshua Eisenman (2023), in their book, China’s Relations with Africa: a New Era of Strategic Engagement, “Each meeting results in a three-year action plan and Chinese pledges of loans, grants, and export credits.”
Although established following the urgings of African diplomats in the late 1990s, China, as Murphy puts it further, has taken the lead in FOCAC throughout the existence of the organization. “In addition to African requests, China had its own reasons for establishing FOCAC, including: creating an organization to ensure future political and economic influence in Africa in light of other great and rising powers setting up similar organizations, counteracting European Union influence in light of the first EU-Africa Summit, counterbalancing emerging India-Africa and Turkey-Africa cooperation organizations, and advocating for developing country causes.”