IN THE ANALYSIS

Africa Watch – Is China retreating?
Chinese sovereign lending to Africa fell below $1 billion last year—the lowest level in nearly two decades, data showed on Tuesday, 19 September. The drop in lending is reflected in data from Boston University’s Global China Initiative. Africa has been a focus of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013 to recreate the ancient Silk Road and extend China’s geopolitical and economic influence through a global infrastructure development push. Boston University’s Chinese Loans to Africa Database estimates that Chinese lenders provided $170 billion to Africa from 2000 to 2022. But lending has declined sharply since a 2016 peak. China's internal politics have led to a reassessment of the Belt and Road Initiative investments, with higher benchmarks set for loan approval. African countries have struggled to meet these new requirements. Many African governments have been unable to muster the discipline required to develop and pursue projects that are viable. Instead, political considerations and grandiose pretensions remain a prime driver of project developments. As the global geopolitical climate continues to churn under the weight of significant realignments, Africa is again failing to position itself to be a net positive gainer. Furthermore, many analysts fail to see the ...
ANALYSIS

Rivers and the politics of backing your enemy
Benjamin Franklin said that only death and taxes are certain ...

The EiE-SBM 2023 Election forecast: It all hinges on insecurity and turnout
The first 2023 election survey conducted by SBM Intelligence was ...

Nigeria’s declining interest in down-ballot elections
According to data from UNESCO, Nigeria has about 20 million ...

Atiku and Adamawa’s back and forth governorship race
Adamawa is a northeastern state with a landmass of 36,917 ...

Plateau: A tale of political rivals
It is not strange that presidential campaigns have captured the ...

2023 election security brief, 13 February
The first leg of the 2023 general elections takes place ...

Cash swap: History repeats itself
Nigerians have been reeling from the bad economy, fuel scarcity, ...

Elections, phoney judgements and rising fears
There is likely to be increased voter turnout in the ...

An elusive independence: Assessing the Supreme Court verdict on Ahmed Lawan
The Supreme Court has not had the rosiest of times ...

BVAS: Ready or not, the elections are here!
When the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that the ...

Africa Watch – The Sahel bleeds some more
Twenty-eight people have died in new attacks by suspected jihadists ...

BVAS: The Osun guber verdict and the 2023 elections
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), an INEC-approved piece of ...

Lagos crackdown: The waters are getting still
It has long been a problem hearing about the Nigerian ...

The Senate and patronising Executive excesses
The Nigerian Senate is the upper house of Nigeria's National ...