Over the past 10 years, Asia has rapidly become the biggest source of contractors for the African Development Bank, winning contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The lion’s share of these contracts have gone to firms from China, which alone have won $6.2 billion of AfDB funding since the year 2000, as explored in the previous part of Devex’s AfDB Contractor Insights series.
But China is not the only Asian country that sees opportunity in Africa. India, Japan, and South Korea are increasingly pivoting toward Africa for opportunities, both through the AfDB and through other means. Between 2000 and 2016, Indian firms won $1.06 billion in awards for 201 contracts; Japanese firms won $650 million for 227 contracts; and South Korean firms won $241 million for 19 contracts.
