For decades, China has been unceasingly making headway on the modality and quality of educational collaboration. This educational collaboration comes through student exchange, joint initiatives (research) and special training programs for African educational officials, as well as other long-and short-term training of Africans in China. On the other hand, in the discourse about China-Africa relations, technology transfer is one of the less investigated subjects; however, technology transfers have existed in China-Africa cooperation in the form of knowledge sharing. The paper explores the following: (i) 'what' are transferred through knowledge sharing; (ii) the potential for cooperation in knowledge sharing between China and African countries that are core to economic development in the areas of agriculture, medical and knowledge sharing from China's development experience. Chinese methods of teaching 'how to develop' based on its own experience may help fortify the independence of African nations and build win-win cooperation for long-term development.

In this study, we quantitatively assessed the effect of China's zero-tariff treatment on export diversification in beneficiary countries in Africa. We assessed its overall effect and its effect on particular industries and regions. The results showed that, overall, zero-tariff treatment significantly promoted export diversification. At the level of industry, zero-tariff treatment had a significant role in promoting the diversification of exports from the manufacturing industry, but did not significantly affect agriculture and mining. At the regional level, zero-tariff treatment significantly promoted export diversification among group members belonging to four major regional economic communities in Africa, albeit to varying degrees. Furthermore, three recommendations are proposed for improving the effect of zero-tariff treatment: expanding the use of regional group accumulation to other areas, reducing non-tariff barriers, and supporting African countries to enhance exports and production capacity.

Notably, East Asian Economies successfully capitalized on shifts in their age structures to gain a boost in economic productivity, a phenomenon known as the demographic dividend. Nowadays, despite the hitherto sluggish pace of Africa’s transition, experts remain optimistic that similar transformation in Africa may lead to faster development in coming decades. The paper attempts to answer the following three questions: (i) Can natural resource development help African economies harness its demographic dividend? (ii) as China forty years long, demographic dividend draws to an end, China is actively trying to capture fresh economic opportunities in higher-value-added productive activity. Can Africa seize this opportunity provided by its own emerging demographic dividend era? (iii) Can imitation game help African economies harness its demographic dividend? Arguably, for African economies to imitate the East Asian miracle and harness a maximum demographic dividend, they should adhere to these three mechanisms: labor supply, savings, and human capital.

African nations are trying to diversify their economies in order to induce industrialization that will help them eradicate poverty and create employment for their young workforce. One of the continent’s key challenges continues to be the shortage of physical infrastructure. Therefore, finding ways to overcome this problem has become of large importance. China has identified this and has thus enhanced its involvement in Africa primarily via its swap formula. The formula enables the financing and development of infrastructure that African nations critically need by depending on their resource wealth. However, the mounting involvement of the formula has continued to stimulate questions on its impact regarding creating backward and forward linkages. As such, one of the significant aims of this article is to identify linkages that emerge from the Chinese swap formula that involve long-term concessionary loans from China’s Exim Bank to finance major infrastructure projects in Africa. It examines whether the swap formula is creating backward and forward linkages in Africa, and what the infrastructure leads to concerning creating novel opportunities for the continent, by theoretically answering this question: “Can China’s swap formula create backward and forward linkages?” Furthermore, the article theoretically identifies the benefits and linkages of the formula via a case study – that of Abuja-Kaduna railway. Arguably, the article discovers that the formula has multiple benefits and linkages for Africa. It is also seen by the Chinese government as a way of fulfilling its strategic goals in Africa.

The continent of Africa must industrialize to eradicate poverty and create jobs for its 12 million African youth who join its workforce yearly. One of the major factors hindering industrialization has been the insufficient stock of productive infrastructure that would permit companies to thrive in industries with robust comparative advantage. Within the context of Africa-China cooperation, China has emerged as a key partner to several African nations, including financing as well as constructing large-scale infrastructure projects. With emphasis on the Tazara railway, Mombasa-Nairobi railway, and Ghana Bui hydropower dam, this paper employs backward and forward linkages theory to investigate what role these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects play in African infrastructure development and what the infrastructure investment leads to concerning creating new opportunities and businesses for Africa. The paper discovers that these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects have multiple gains and linkages for and beyond the three various projects areas. Above all, these three Chinese-led infrastructure projects were seen by the Chinese government to fulfil its goals in Africa.