Paper short abstract:

The issue of ocean governance in Africa has become a worrying concern.The untapped economic potential of African oceans as well as challenges of marine environmental pollution has been a bane to blue growth. The Maritime Silk Road if adopted carefully might be able to help solve these problems.

Paper long abstract:

Modern debates about the rise of China, has brought into question its role in the global political- economic arena as well as its current role in the African region. This global rise of China has evermore been fueled and given a much-needed impetus through its 'Project of the Century' as opined by President Xi Jingping, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

This paper seeks to appraise the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), a part of the BRI and its impact in shaping the economic, security and environmental challenges that face the oceans and seas of Africa, using the Gulf of Guinea as a case study. Owing to the richness as well as challenges faced by countries bordered by the Gulf of Guinea, it has been argued that the MSR would help address such challenges and propel blue growth or what scholars call a blue economy.

Nonetheless, it is very crucial that in carrying out the goals of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, China must play a key role in genuinely helping to ensure global governance over the oceans and seas that have come under a wide range of challenges ranging from international territorial conflicts, IUU fishing, piracy, marine pollution, the incidence of micro plastics and many others.

The MSR might be that fulcrum to deliver a solid blue economy to the Gulf of Guinea.