Several Founders, Co-Founders, CXO Bankers, CXO Fintech professional & people who participated in the ePanel discussions:
- Mr. Ahmed Yusuf, Executive Management, Unity Bank Plc, Nigeria
- Mr. Taron Mohan, CEO & Promoter, NextGen Telesolutions Pvt Ltd
- Mr. Arun Tanksali, Co-founder & CTO, Nearex
- Mr. Abhishek Mody, former Associate Director-Payment & Digital Initiatives, IDFC First Bank
- Mr. Vikas R Panditrao, Co-Founder, Forum of Industry and Academic Knowledge Sharing (FIAKS)
- Many other CEO/CXO Bankers & Fintech professionals on FIAKS Forum requested to remain anonymous
While everyone is witnessing this gut-wrenching pandemic and every country is almost agitated over China and have literally learned big lessons from the current situation. One such region is Africa which is now moving away from China
A member having been worked in the African area for 10 years shared a viewpoint on the African movement away from China, “The Chinese built a lot of infra with long term financing agreements and the governments there cannot move out. Quite like the Sri Lankan and the trade corridor through Pakistan. The only hope for them is in agriculture and food processing – this is totally out of the Chinese hold. Food processing is a big opportunity, farm mechanization is also huge. Local manufacturing is also huge – Ethiopia is setting up bus/truck assembly, but then again with Chinese companies. Member says we from here can move in there with food processing in a big way. We already are large in Ethiopia/Kenya /Rwanda /Uganda with agriculture.”
A quick preview into the history:
- China has been engaged with African countries way back for decades but became more concentrated following the announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. Subsequently, Beijing’s influence was more consolidated around the economic leverage, information manipulation, elite capture, and cultural soft power which were the pillars of BRI. In many African countries, through BRI there were pervasive, opaque, and expensive changes to politics and the economy.
- BRI established influence which in turn lead to political gain unrelated to any BRI projects as well usually to support Beijing’s movement on the global stage. The pandemic has highlighted how China will hold a grip over this cultivated influence to pressure African partners
Here’s a lesson to African leaders: REGISTER and READ the complete Discussions