In this article, Prof Shameen Prashantham explores how South-South business engagement, particularly between Chinese and African firms, can catalyze transformative entrepreneurship. Drawing on firsthand observations from Africa, the piece highlights three key advantages of such partnerships: addressing institutional gaps, fostering skills transfer for job creation, and scaling affordable, sustainable solutions.
During my last pre-Covid visit to Africa in October 2019, signs of China’s growing presence on the continent were impossible to miss. Just a few steps from Lagos airport, a giant billboard proclaimed “China Civil, Building Your Vision!” In Nairobi, media sought my thoughts on the recent opening of a $1.5 billion Chinese-built railway connecting Nairobi to Naivasha. After a half-decade away due to Covid, I returned to Africa to find China’s influence seemingly even stronger. In Accra, a colleague showed me the Jamestown Fishing Harbour, a British-era landmark with a prominent red-and-white lighthouse. But closer inspection revealed a telling detail — the logo read “China Aid.” The scene took on deeper significance when I met a highly qualified Ghanaian pharmacist recently unemployed following the cessation of US Aid funds.
Being based at a leading Chinese business school uniquely with a campus in Africa (in Ghana), I have an intriguing perspective on the China–Africa business corridor. Clearly, both are large and varied regions: Africa, as a vast continent, has multiple national contexts, and China, as an enormous national economy, is remarkably diverse. Even so, a few broad observations can be made about the potential benefits for African businesses engaging with China. This is not a repudiation of the value of engaging with businesses from elsewhere. Quite the contrary: African businesses would do well to build a portfolio of relationships with a varied set of companies, including those from Africa itself as well as from the West. For instance, the South African telecommunications giant MTN exemplifies how successful African businesses embrace complexity. And Western companies like Nestlé have been an important source of sound managerial practices and training. But in addition, foreign emerging markets offer the potential for mutually beneficial engagement. African businesses, while maintaining valuable partnerships with Western and regional firms, stand to gain unique advantages by also engaging with emerging market companies, notably from China. These advantages manifest in three main areas.
Navigating institutional voids
As an international business professor with a focus on emerging markets, one foundational concept I have long been intrigued by is institutional voids—the idea that the rules of the game might be different and not always upheld, partly due to acute information asymmetries and a lack of transparency. These voids often manifest as weak infrastructure, regulatory complexity, and limited trust in business transactions—still a defining feature in many African contexts. While these can be daunting, they also provide opportunities for creative entrepreneurial responses. A recent visit to Alibaba with women entrepreneurs from the CEIBS Africa campus made this tangible. The group was struck by the early challenges Jack Ma faced – challenges that strongly echoed their own – including issues around payments, logistics, and digital infrastructure. What stood out was that Alibaba’s transformation didn’t emerge from Silicon Valley privilege, but from grappling with comparable gaps in China two decades ago. For African entrepreneurs, such stories are far more relatable – and instructive – than tales of innovation from already-advanced contexts.
Unlocking employment through skills transfer
In the opposite direction – from China to Africa – my recent conversations with Chinese and international executives whom I taught on a “doing business in Africa” course revealed how private Chinese enterprises (in contrast to the state-owned giants behind the sort of large infrastructure projects mentioned at the start of this article) can be important sources of industrial know-how, job creation, and skill-building. A case in point is Bright Industrial Park in Ghana, where a Chinese-owned apparel factory producing for the US market was proudly using “Made in Ghana” labels. Some firms, I learned, had preemptively relocated in response to shifting global trade dynamics even before the Trump era. Inside the factory, young women workers appeared genuinely appreciative of their stable employment and dormitory housing. Despite relying on mobile apps to bridge language barriers with Chinese supervisors, many felt they were acquiring valuable skills. Though concerns about neo-colonialism are valid and must be taken seriously as noted by the executives on my course, a local tribal chief who is also a businessman suggested that as long as such ventures are legal and bring benefits like employment and skill transfer, they should be welcomed. The Bright Industrial Park itself stands as an example of locally responsive investment: quickly set up, addressing real needs, and lowering barriers for Ghana’s missing middle of manufacturers – all while enabling skills development in what appeared to be a relatively stable and safe environment.
Delivering affordable, SDG-relevant solutions
“Affordable solutions” – both words matter. Too often, innovations from advanced markets prove unaffordable, while low-cost products from developing countries fall short on durability or effectiveness. True societal impact requires both: affordability and efficacy. One of the most striking examples I’ve come across in this regard is Shenzhen Power Solutions (SPS), whose founder Susan Li was honored with the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos. Raised in rural Heilongjiang by a single mother without stable electricity, Susan understood energy poverty firsthand. After a career in international trade and a transformative trip to India’s slums in 2007, she launched SPS to explore off-grid solar solutions. From its base in Shenzhen – which is referred to as China’s “Silicon Valley” – SPS leveraged the city’s solar manufacturing strengths to create durable and affordable innovations. Its $5 solar lamp, the “Candle Killer,” has replaced kerosene in thousands of African homes, offering brighter, cleaner, and longer-lasting light. SPS didn’t stop there: it scaled through PAYGO models, local partnerships, and NGO alliances, delivering not just energy but education and health access. Collaborations with multinational corporations like TotalEnergies have helped amplify its reach. SPS’s story highlights that frugal innovation and local embedding represent a replicable template for mission-driven ventures tackling global challenges from the Global South.
Conclusion: Unlocking Inclusive Growth Through China–Africa Partnerships
African businesses today face an unprecedented opportunity to leapfrog traditional development trajectories by embracing affordable, innovative technologies, many of which originate from or are inspired by China’s own development experience. Just as China bypassed outdated systems to accelerate progress in sectors like e-commerce, logistics, and renewable energy, so too can African entrepreneurs harness similar solutions to address persistent gaps in digital connectivity, clean energy, and local manufacturing. This leapfrogging is not merely about technology adoption but about deploying context-appropriate innovations that provide access to essential services—such as mobile payments, solar-powered devices, and digitally enabled supply chains—that are often out of reach through conventional models.
A key insight from Chinese-African business engagements is the value of strategic flexibility and operational improvisation. Success often hinges not on rigid adherence to plans but on a willingness to adapt by navigating infrastructure deficits, shifting regulations, and informal market dynamics with agility and creativity. Firms that localize quickly, build trust, and deliver reliable, affordable products stand a better chance of embedding meaningfully within African ecosystems. This adaptive mindset – common among many Chinese private-sector players – has proven critical for addressing institutional voids and turning local challenges into scalable opportunities.
Taken together, these examples show that South-South partnerships, including those blending Chinese and African entrepreneurship, can generate multidimensional development outcomes. Whether through the frugal ingenuity of social ventures like Shenzhen Power Solutions or the industrial pragmatism of Chinese firms operating manufacturing parks, African businesses can potentially discover new pathways to inclusive growth through models that resonate with their own realities. Importantly, such collaborations could advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while rooted in a mutual understanding of shared constraints.
About the Author
Shameen Prashantham is Professor of International Business and Strategy and Associate Dean (Africa) at CEIBS, Shanghai. His research connects global strategy and entrepreneurship, focusing on partnerships between multinationals and startups—also the topic of his acclaimed book, Gorillas Can Dance: Lessons from Microsoft and Other Corporations on Partnering with Startups.
