In the mid-1980s, Kenya realized there was not enough employment for the growing number of young people. This was particularly disconcerting when graduates filled the streets looking for elusive white-collar jobs.
In the early 1990s the rumbling of cement mixers in Kenya signaled the arrival of European construction firms. In some cases the work they did could save lives and received the appropriate accolades in such cases as the overpass built at a level crossing in Eldoret, in the country's west.
China's Huawei Technologies is helping Africa advance deeper into the digital age with such projects as upgrading an undersea cable to Europe, which will help in reducing the urban-rural digital divide and expansion of connectivity to libraries, schools and data-hungry users.
China has become a key economic partner for East Africa as China and Kenya embark on modernizing through ambitious infrastructure development programs.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, African governments seeking financing for capital-intensive and risky infrastructure projects were forced to accept financing, resources and delivery of projects from a single source, usually tied to the financier.
I recently attended a lobby group conference where African contractors complained that Chinese companies had taken over not only major projects such as roads, but also real estate projects.
It is a vision with world-changing implications, an unfolding plan that will weave much of Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East much more closely together through a patchwork of diplomacy, new infrastructure and free-trade zones.
As the One Belt, One Road initiative unfolds, Chinese policymakers have the chance to finally give finance and the financial system the prominence they deserve as the country works with its neighbors in Southeast Asia, experts say.
The residents of Khiva in Uzbekistan might be forgiven for thinking the Silk Road trading caravans of old had come to stop at the mud-walled heart of their ancient trading city.
Most people know how China became linked thousands of years ago with the Mediterranean and Europe through the Silk Road, a 6,500-kilometer trading route stretching across Central Asia. But not many people may know that a series of Chinese initiatives is bringing new life and vigor to these old central Asian trading posts.
After repeated delays and false starts, the long-awaited China Pakistan Economic Corridor project is finally happening.
When Abdullahi Tukur Bawa finished high school in northern Nigeria seven years ago, he was keen on going to Britain or the United States to pursue his studies. But his parents gave that idea short shrift. For them there was only one country he could possibly go to: China.
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