Top 10 African countries with the highest number of Chinese workers

To ensure the continuous economic growth of African countries, there is a need to boost trade, finance, and positive migration within the continent. To achieve this, attracting investments by world powers such as China has been crucial to Africa's infrastructural development.

China currently plays a significant role in providing local manufacturing capabilities through government loans and foreign direct investment (FDI) to African nations.

Chinese loans and infrastructure aid to African countries often come with a significant migration component, as the contracted companies typically bring in their own experts and workers to execute projects, rather than relying on local labor

Data analyzed by global development consultancy, Development Imagined also notes correlations at country level, between the project with huge budgets in each country and the number of Chinese workers.

"We find a strong association between the countries with high levels of FDI, contract revenues, loans and Chinese workers- i.e. countries where there are projects (loans or revenues), DO have more Chinese workers." the report noted

While there are concerns about the impact of Chinese workers on local employment, the number of Chinese workers in Africa has actually been declining since 2015, with a significant 49% decline in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Data from China's National Bureau of Statistics shows a growing number of migration of Chinese workers from 2009 (about 180k), to 2015 where it peaked at 263,659.

The figure maintained a steady drop from 2015, to 2022 where it recorded a new low of 88,371 potentially creating opportunities for local workers to fill the gap.

According to data from Statista, the top ten countries with the most number of Chinese workers are presented below. These five countries accounted for about 42% of all Chinese workers in Africa.

Other African countries also recorded very low number of Chinese workers.