CHINA IN AFRICA
* China’s investment in Africa has increased a staggering 30-fold since 2005.
* 2,000 Chinese firms are now present in 50 African countries.
* Brookings Institute estimates China has 155 commercial attaches in Africa, roughly three per country.
* In 2009, China surpassed the Unites States as Africa’s largest trading partner.
* China’s two-way trade with Africa valued $152 billion in 2012, down from $166 billion in 2011, compared to $73 billion and $126 billion, respectively, in U.S.-Africa two-way trade.
* From 2000 to 2010, China’s Export Import Bank cumulative financing authorizations for Africa totaled $67.2 billion, against $7.3 billion for the U.S. Export Import Bank in the same period.
* China Exim Bank estimated that 85 percent of the 800 or so Chinese companies operating in Africa in 2006 were privately owned small and medium-size enterprises.
* Interest rates on China Exim Bank loans to Africa range from 1 percent to 6 percent, with repayment periods of 5 years to 25 years and a grace period of 2 to 10 years.
* Angola has been one of the four biggest recipients of Chinese financing for infrastructure projects. It supplies 51 percent of China’s oil imports from Sub-Saharan Africa.
* In 2004, China extended a $2 billion credit line to Angola for infrastructure development. As repayment, Angola agreed to supply China 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day. This arrangement, which gave birth to the term “Angola model,” broadly describes China’s relationship with much of Africa.
* Equipment and machinery are China’s largest and fastest growing sectors in trading with Africa.
* China’s infrastructure investments in Africa totaled $35 billion from 2001 to 2010.
* China’s infrastructure financing in Sub-Saharan Africa has exceeded that of the World Bank since 2005.
* China has invested $23 billion on oil refineries in Nigeria with a view toward access to oil reserves.
* China has invested $6 billion in the Democratic Republic of Congo for mines, roads, rails, hospitals and schools infrastructure.
AFRICAN COMPANIES
* 20 African companies have achieved revenues of at least $3 billion.
* An estimated 95 percent of businesses in Africa are MSMEs (micro, small and medium-size enterprises).
* SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises) are responsible for roughly 40 percent of GDP and 50 percent of jobs on the continent.
* For SMEs that lack the credit history or required collateral to access traditional forms financing, lease financing for equipment and capital goods is an important alternative. With the exception of Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia, the leasing market is in its nascent stages, with penetration rates ranging from 1 percent to 5 percent, against a global average of 20 percent.
