It's no joke summoning 53 presidents to your office. He must be the most powerful leader ever. Though the good news is that the Africans left the chinaman's palace USD 60B richer.

Richer or poorer

This is why China rules Africa, because we think loans make us richer!

When someone advances you cash without conditions and at very low interest rates, then you are certainly in a better situation. The alternative for africa would have to go to the world bank or IMF and kneel to plead for the cash which would have come with very tough conditions and msomo.

Just like if a friend advances you a 60m soft loan to put up a flat, you are better of than going the bank for the same cash, and you'd be worse off if you fear borrowing from either your friend or the bank, ie if you do nothing. Of course you will be indebted to your friend for some time but will be richer in the long run. Loans make us richer coz they enable us undertake projects that we'd never do even if we saved all our lives.

Also do you know that china is training hundreds of kenyan students annually at post graduate level in chinese universities? This is akin to the famous US airlift of the 1960s. The USD 60B chinese finance covers not just infrastructure but also other sectors like education.

FYI even the private sector has looked east and firms such as safaricom run on chinese hardware (huawei). So at safcom, our money as shareholders and customers is going to china to service our loans.