Africa isn’t being abandoned — it’s rewriting terms of global investment

SUNDAY April 19, 2026

By Adam Ihucha

The Tranquillity News Correspondent, Tanzania 

A wave of headlines has painted a stark picture: China cutting financing to Africa by 85 per cent, Western partners narrowing their focus, and the European Union turning inward.

The conclusion often drawn is blunt—Africa is being abandoned.

But that narrative, according to Amne Suedi, an international investment lawyer working across East Africa, misses what is actually happening on the ground.

“This is not collapse,” she says. “It’s recalibration.”

The myth of abandonment

China’s sharp reduction in lending—estimated in some analyses at steep levels—combined with a more selective approach from the United States and Europe has fuelled concerns about a funding vacuum.

This is not collapse, it’s recalibration,” Amne Sued, international lawyer turned entrepreneur and founder of Shikana Investment and Advisory Group.

Yet Suedi argues that much of this interpretation is rooted in an outdated “dependency framework,” where African economies are seen as reliant on external capital flows as a lifeline rather than participants in a global marketplace.

“That framing tells you more about the analysts than about Africa,” she says. “Capital doesn’t come to Africa as charity. It comes because of strategic necessity.”

The resource reality

That necessity is becoming more pronounced, not less.

The global push toward decarbonisation, electrification, and digitalisation depends heavily on minerals that are abundant across the continent.

Countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo dominate global cobalt supply, while nations, including Tanzania, hold significant reserves of graphite, rare earths, and other critical inputs.

“The world cannot decarbonise without African lithium, cobalt, and graphite,” Suedi says. “It cannot digitise without African rare earths. That’s not rhetoric—it’s structural reality.”

From passive recipient to active negotiator

What has changed, she argues, is not demand—but bargaining power.

Across East Africa, governments are adopting more assertive investment strategies.

These include stricter local content requirements, demands for in-country processing (beneficiation), and fiscal regimes designed to capture more long-term value.

The world cannot decarbonise without African lithium, cobalt, and graphite, it cannot digitise without African rare earths. That’s not rhetoric—it’s structural reality,” Amne Sued, international lawyer turned entrepreneur and founder of Shikana Investment and Advisory Group.

“The era of exporting raw materials while capturing almost nothing downstream is being challenged,” Suedi explains.

“These discussions are happening now at cabinet tables and investment committees—not as theory, but as policy.”

This shift is visible in how deals are structured. Governments are increasingly prioritising industrial linkages, job creation, and technology transfer, rather than focusing solely on upfront capital inflows.

A changing role for global powers

China’s evolving approach reflects both domestic economic pressures and a reassessment of overseas risk, while the United States has signalled a more targeted interest in securing supply chains for critical minerals.

The European Union, meanwhile, has recalibrated parts of its external investment strategy amid competing fiscal and geopolitical priorities.

But rather than leaving a vacuum, these shifts are creating a more competitive environment—one in which African governments have greater leverage to define terms.

The real question: Who sets the price?

Suedi argues that the central question is no longer who will finance Africa’s development, but under what conditions investment will take place.

“When China pulls back and America says it wants critical minerals, the question isn’t ‘who will save Africa,’” she says. “It’s ‘what terms will Africa set for partners who need what it has.’”

That distinction signals a deeper transformation—from a continent often cast as a passive recipient of capital to one increasingly acting as a price setter in strategic sectors.

Risks and realities

This transition is not without challenges.

The world didn’t stop needing Africa, it just stopped pretending the old terms were sustainable—and Africa noticed,” Amne Sued, international lawyer turned entrepreneur and founder of Shikana Investment and Advisory Group.

Tougher negotiation stances and evolving regulatory frameworks can slow deal-making and create uncertainty for investors.

There are also capacity constraints, as governments balance the need to attract capital with the ambition to maximise national benefit.

Still, the broader direction is clear: Africa is not being sidelined by global capital—it is renegotiating its place within it.

A shift the headlines miss

The dominant narrative of retreat obscures a more significant development.

Demand for Africa’s resources has not diminished. If anything, it has intensified as global supply chains are reshaped.

“The world didn’t stop needing Africa,” Suedi says. “It just stopped pretending the old terms were sustainable—and Africa noticed.”

In that shift lies the real story: Not abandonment, but a rebalancing of power in one of the most strategically important regions of the global economyΩ