The Emerging Pattern of African Economic Engagement with China and the Rising South: Implications for Africa's Structural Transformation

The study critically examines the pattern of African economic engagement with China and the emerging South. The emerging pattern of trade and finance in this engagement is in the course of sustaining the problem of trading in primary commodities in Africa. Thus, this engagement is found to hinder structural transformation of the continent, is leading to low quality growth and has limited effect on poverty reduction. Sustained growth and poverty reduction is impossible without addressing such structural problems related to primary commodity trade with China through structural transformation of the continent. Although the engagement has both challenges and opportunities the persistence of challenges, as opposed to opportunities, in the current engagement shows the lack of both human and institutional capacity and the resulting lack of informed-policy to benefit from the China-Africa current economic engagement. Without such capacity and informed policy for strategic engagement, Africa may not benefit from its current engagement with China in the long run.