China’s African port interests are expanding. Is the PLA Navy next on deck?

Beijing’s trade bets on African ports are paying off, but protecting those investments could mean repurposing facilities for military use, analysts say

Reading Time:4 minutes

A container vessel docks at Lekki Port in Nigeria. According to a new study, China gains as much as US$13 in trade revenues for every dollar invested in African ports. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:10pm, 17 Mar 2025Updated: 9:06pm, 17 Mar 2025

Chinese state-owned firms have built, financed or currently operate more than one-quarter of Africa’s ports, according to a new study that has detailed the scope of Beijing’s investment in the continent’s port developments.

Of a total of 231 ports in 32 African countries, China is invested in 78 facilities, with the heaviest concentrations in West Africa, underscoring the region’s strategic importance to China’s global trade ambitions, according to a report by Paul Nantulya of the National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington.

Under China’s current five-year plan, which outlined a “connectivity framework” positioning Africa as a pivotal link in China’s global trade network, two forces have driven the investment wave in the continent: the Belt and Road Initiative and Beijing’s “go out policy” – a government drive that provides state backing to firms to venture into overseas markets such as Africa.

Three of the six trade corridors outlined in the Chinese plan run through Africa, landing in East Africa, Egypt and the Suez region, and Tunisia, according to the report.

“This reinforces the central role that the continent plays in China’s global ambitions,” Nantulya said in the report published by the centre on March 10.

For instance, China Harbour Engineering Company was the contractor and engineering firm for Lekki Deep Sea Port in Nigeria. The firm took a 54 per cent stake in the port which it operates under a 16-year lease, after securing financing from China Development Bank, according to the report.