African regional awards

If Euromoney Awards for Excellence were handed out merely for size and influence, the award for best bank in Africa, like many things African, could be heading to China this year. It is impossible to ignore the impact of China’s Export-Import Bank on the continent. It has approved some $7 billion-worth of loans in the past three years, according to the Centre for Global Development, a Washington think-tank, and with no difficult strings attached such as concerns for human rights or good governance. China is fast becoming Africa’s most enthusiastic investor, pouring more than $20 billion into the continent and snapping up more than 10% of sub-Saharan Africa’s exports ($19.2 billion) in 2005, the last year for which figures are available. Other active Chinese financial institutions in Africa include the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the China Development Bank. This activity increased in 2006 as China takes a quarter of all Angola’s oil exports. China’s influence on the region is so pervasive that the African Development Bank held its annual meeting in November last year in Beijing.