Ms Jiang made the disclosure in response to a question by the Daily Graphic on how much investment the fund had made in Ghana since its office was opened in Accra in 2011.

The event was a meeting last Tuesday on the fund created in 2007 to support Chinese investments in Africa, and had in attendance, some 27 African journalists currently in China on a 10-month fellowship, officials from the Chinese foreign ministry and the fund.

Benefits to Ghana

Ms Jiang indicated that Ghana’s benefit from the fund was mainly through the Sunon Asogli Power Plant, which currently supplies 560 mw (its full capacity) of Ghana’s power needs and an aviation investment in Africa World Airlines (AWA), all  privately owned, and were initiated by the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV.

“The power plant project is the biggest project of our cooperation with Ghana. It contributes 20 per cent of the power consumption of Ghana and has alleviated the power shortage of the whole western Africa.

“Secondly, we are also cooperating with a Chinese company to develop an AWA regional aviation project that also serves to solve the bottleneck of aviation in the region. For us at CADFund, our mission is to have Chinese enterprises go to Africa and help them to develop there.

“But we are also serving as a bridge so if there are some African countries which have the intention and fund to come to China to work with Chinese companies, we can also help to connect to serve as the bridge,” Ms Jiang said, and added, “the CADFund office in Accra has so far invested over US$100 million all together.”  

Sunon Asogli Power (GH) Ltd operates the power plant put up with the support of the Shenzhen Energy Group Limited, China, which has a 60 per cent stake and the CADFund which holds 40 per cent shares.

Benefits to Africa

The Vice President of the CADFund, Mr Wang Yong, said since the fund’s establishment, Africa had enjoyed about US$ 20 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) from China.

“And all the projects we have invested in have generated about US$ 2 billion of local exports, US$ 10 billion local tax revenue and benefited directly and indirectly over one million local people,” he said.

According to Mr Wang, African governments saw the fund as a primary investment vehicle for the investment cooperation between China and Africa.

Why Africa?

Presenting an overview of the fund, the Executive Director of the Research and Development Department, Mr Wu Zheneng, said the decision to invest in Africa was premised on the confidence China had in Africa’s thriving economy, the potential that the continent wielded, and the enormous potential of Sino-Africa cooperation, particularly in terms of investment.

“China is among the top five in trade, FDI stock and growth, and infrastructure financing. Our trade reached exactly US$ 220 billion in the year 2014. Although it dropped in 2015 and 2016 due to the drop in commodity prices, the volume of cargo is not dropping significantly and its recovery is ready according to updated data,” he said.

Mr Wu said in the first half of 2017, the volume of trade between China and Africa was US$ 85.3 billion, showing an increase of 19 per cent. He added that in 2015, the stock of Chinese investments in Africa amounted to US$ 35 billion and was expected to reach US$ 100 billion by 2020.

“Africa is the most dynamic continent second only to east and southern Asia. The size of the African economy is now more than US$ 2.5 trillion. Moreover, Africa has a large young population and 60 per cent are 24 years and there are about 370 million middle-class consumers” he stated.

The CADFund

The CADFund, China’s first equity fund with focus on investment in Africa, serves as a platform that works with governments, other institutions and civil society organisations such as the China Poverty Alleviation Centre to alleviate poverty in Africa.

It has also been involved in HIV/AIDS campaigns, made donations during the Ebola epidemic in 2014, built platforms of communication for Chinese and African youth and promoted cultural exchanges between China and Africa.  

Currently, there are over 100 projects in 36 countries in Africa receiving support from the fund which is market driven. These projects have created over 74,000 jobs that have benefited over one million people, according to Mr Wu.

He said as part of their social responsibility projects, nine roads had been built as well as four hospitals and four schools, while the fund had contributed over US$ 20 billion in exports and generated over US$ 10 billion in tax revenues in Africa.