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China’s Unrivaled Speed Advantage in Africa

by Eric Olander
A picture taken on June 23, 2018 shows the track laying machine at the construction site of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) during the Presidential Inspection of the SGR Nairobi-Naivasha Phase 2A project in Nairobi, Kenya. The SGR phase 2A project is an 120km extensiton of the Monbasa-Nairobi SGR project (Phase 1) with the longest railway bridge in the country, 5.8km Super Major Bridge, constructed across Nairobi National Park. Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

With the first tranche of the $649 million financing now available, Ghana is moving very fast to build the infrastructure projects promised as part of the controversial bauxite deal that it recently finalized with the state-owned Chinese construction conglomerate Sinohydro.

The agreement stipulated that Ghana would sell 5% of its bauxite reserves in exchange for $2 billion in infrastructure development.

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