Could visits be a move to check China’s rising influence?

Experts say that, without the IMF’s support, it would have been tricky for financially challenged nations to survive the economic slump.

For the past 18 months, the institution has engaged in critical financial and reform support to African countries to help them weather the crisis.

But with a legacy from the global recession of sluggish growth and higher poverty, IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn says it will be critical for African countries to raise their growth performance further to help accelerate job creation and boost incomes.

This, he said, will require additional improvements in macroeconomic management and the business climate.

To boost its presence on the continent, the institution says it will put up two regional centres in Africa.

United Bank of Africa managing director in-charge of Kenya Manz Denga said the IMF chief’s visit to Kenya, Zambia and South Africa is timely since most African economies have done relatively well in the face of the global financial crisis.

“What Africa needs right now is an inflow of international funds for infrastructural development and large local financial institutions that understand African businesses with widespread presence across Africa to partner with international investors for growth,” Mr Denga told The EastAfrican.

But critics say apart from promoting Africa’s economy, Mr Strauss-Kahn’s two visits in East Africa in a span of a year could be an attempt to dilute the increasing influence of the world’s emerging economic power, China, around the continent.

“Beijing’s burgeoning influence around the globe, specifically Africa, is not going down well with the United States and Europe. Traditionally, the US has been perceived to push its agenda through the World Bank while Europe has been relating to the rest of the world through the IMF. This is exactly what is happening today,” a source close to the Fund said.

In recent years, China has identified the African continent as an area of significant economic and strategic interest.

America and its allies are finding that their vision of a prosperous Africa governed by democracies that respect human rights and the rule of law and embrace free markets is being challenged by the escalating influence of Beijing on the continent.

“For the past decade, the Chinese economy has been expanding at a nearly double-digit annual rate. This rapid expansion requires enormous resources, especially energy. China’s sharply accelerating domestic energy demand combined with declining domestic petroleum production and insufficient coal output has spurred China to pursue stable overseas sources of hydrocarbon fuels,” Peter Brookes, director of the Asian Studies Centre at the Heritage Foundation, a US policy think-tank, said.

Statistics show that by 2004, China had become the world’s second largest oil consumer, behind only the US.

Its oil consumption is expected to increase by 10 per cent a year, while China’s oil and gas imports are forecast to increase from the present 33 per cent of its total oil and gas demand to 60 per cent by 2020.

An estimated 25 per cent of China’s total oil imports currently come from Africa and Beijing has placed a high priority on maintaining strong ties with its African energy suppliers through investment and a strict policy of “non­interference in internal affairs” that Africa’s leadership find comforting.