Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the impact of Chinese construction projects on structural transformation in Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at Chinese construction projects in Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia – the three countries that registered the highest cumulative value of construction projects completed by Chinese firms in sub-Saharan Africa between 1998 and 2018 as part of China’s ‘Going Out’ Strategy and later the BRI. This paper firstly shows that Chinese construction projects were an important catalyst for structural transformation. Beyond providing critical infrastructure for productive sector activities, the construction boom has spurred demand for and induced domestic manufacturing of building materials and second-round demand multipliers. The paper secondly shows that emerging capitalist interests in building materials manufacturing are shaped by and have (re)shaped domestic political economy dynamics. These domestic power relationships determine the nature of the ensuing accumulation processes and their dysfunctionalities. In Angola new business opportunities served to consolidate wealth and power of the ruling elite but foundered after the 2014/15 oil price shock in the absence of strategic industrial policy support and without efforts to consolidate demand structures. Nigeria has seen the emergence of successful large-scale monopoly capitalists – Dangote and BUA – but second-round demand multipliers were weak among other because the distributional dynamics in the leading conglomerates did not work to reinforce the growth of purchasing power in the Nigerian economy. To justify its political legitimacy, the former dominant faction within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition had a strong interest to implement strategic industrial policy to deliver fast output and employment growth but failed to overcome distributional conflict.