Power plays: China’s changing energy financing in Africa

Power plays: China’s changing energy financing in Africa

Over the past two decades, Chinese financing in Africa has boomed and waned, and undergone cycles of change. Initially dominated by lending from state-owned policy banks for large infrastructure and energy projects, notably in coal and hydropower, the landscape began to significantly transform in the early 2010s. This transformation accelerated around 2015, when Chinese policy narratives signalled a wider strategic steering towards more diversif…