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South Africa defeated Rwanda 3-0 in Mbombela Tuesday to win Group C and qualify for the 2026 World Cup.Thalente Mbatha and Oswin Appollis scored in the first half with Evidence Makgopa sealing victory with a goal midway through the second period.South Africa topped the table with 18 points, one more than Nigeria, who hammered third-placed Benin 4-0 in Uyo with Victor Osimhen claiming a hat-trick.However, Nigeria could still make it to the World Cup as they will be among the four best-ranked African runners-up who compete in a mini-tournament in Morocco during November.The winners of the play-offs, which involve single-match semi-finals and a final, advance to an inter-continental tournament in March with two World Cup places up for grabs.It will be the fourth appearance by South Africa at the global showpiece. They qualified for the 1998 and 2002 tournaments and were automatic participants in 2010 as the host nation.Belgium-born coach Hugo Broos was thrilled as he represented his country as a player at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and wanted to coach a team at the tournament before retiring."We all knew that we could do it, we believed in ourselves. We are going to the World Cup and it is fantastic," said the 73-year-old."In the last three years we changed players and every time it was the right choice. What happened tonight is the work of three years and the future looks very bright for South African football."We have the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco during December and then the World Cup. There are no words to express how I feel."Winger Appollis was voted player of the match after scoring and creating the other goals as South Africa regained their scoring touch after failing to find the net in a draw with Zimbabwe last Friday."What an amazing feeling for the group going to the World Cup. I am so happy for the boys," he told reporters."I know we had a draw in our last game, but I knew that we would come here to Mbombela tonight and win."Qualification was a huge relief for South Africa, who saw a five-point lead with four rounds remaining turn into a two-point deficit behind Benin entering the final round.South Africa dropped points in home draws with Nigeria and Zimbabwe and forfeited three points for fielding the ineligible Teboho Mokoena in a victory over Lesotho.South Africa needed to beat Rwanda and hope Nigeria defeated Benin, and that is what transpired with the home teams making dream starts.Nigeria were ahead within three minutes through Osimhen while Mbatha scored the first South African goal with just five minutes gone.A snap shot from Appollis midway through the opening half put South Africa in control and Rwanda spent most of the match on the back foot.Makgopa, a late call-up in place of injured Iqraam Rayners, headed into the net off a corner on 72 minutes to complete the scoring.Osimhen netted a second time before half-time and completed his hat-trick six minutes into the second half. An added-time goal from Frank Onyeka completed the rout.South Africa become the seventh African country to qualify for the expanded 48-team World Cup next year in the United States, Canada and Mexico.They join Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia, and the final two automatic qualifiers will be decided later Tuesday.Group leaders Ivory Coast and Senegal need victories at home to Kenya and Mauritania respectively to qualify.

The first Test between Pakistan and South Africa was set for a thrilling conclusion after rival spinners Noman Ali and Senuran Muthusamy wrought destruction on day three in Lahore Tuesday.Muthusamy took a maiden 10-wicket match haul to help bowl Pakistan out for 167 in their second innings on another day dominated by spin and give South Africa a target of 277 for victory.But Noman, following up his 6-112 in the first innings, dismissed captain Aiden Markram for three and Wiaan Mulder (nought) to keep the visitors down to 51-2 at the close.Ryan Rickelton, 29 not out, and Tony de Zorzi, unbeaten on 16, fought till stumps with South Africa needing another 226 runs.Pakistan need eight wickets for a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.With the threatening spin duo of Noman and Sajid Khan the home team will fancy their chances, especially because no visiting team in Pakistan has ever chased more than the 220-8 Sri Lanka did in Rawalpindi in 2000.Pakistan head coach Azhar Ali was in buoyant mood."We will definitely defend this target," said the former Pakistan all-rounder."The state of the pitch and our spinners make us favourites, despite our batting not up to the mark in the second outing."De Zorzi, who hit a century in South Africa's first innings, acknowledged the pressure was on."These are tough conditions for batting, but hopefully myself and Rickelton can build tomorrow," he said."We will definitely give our best tomorrow, knowing that partnerships will be like gold."As a gripping match approaches its climax, Muthusamy destroyed Pakistan with figures of 5-57 to add to his 6-117 while fellow spinner Simon Harmer took 4-51 as Pakistan lost their last six wickets for 17 runs.The hosts were fairly well placed at 150-4 but Saud Shakeel holed out for 38 off Muthusamy to trigger a collapse in the last over before tea.Harmer bowled Mohammad Rizwan for 14 before Muthusamy ran riot.He dismissed Salman Agha for four, Noman Ali for 11 and Shaheen Shah Afridi for nought to finish with match figures of 11-174, taking four wickets off 21 balls.Harmer ended Pakistan's sloppy batting display by removing Sajid Khan for one.Earlier, South Africa were dismissed for 269 an hour before lunch, conceding a lead of 109 after Pakistan's first-innings 378.Noman took 6-112 for his ninth haul of five wickets or more in Tests.Muthusamy magicWith the Gaddafi Stadium taking big turn, South Africa tossed Harmer the new ball in Pakistan's second innings.The 36-year-old had Imam-ul-Haq stumped by wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne for nought before trapping captain Shan Masood lbw for seven.Muthusamy then had Abdullah Shafique for 41 and pacer Kagiso Rabada trapped Babar Azam leg-before for 42.Azam has now failed to score a hundred in 28 Test innings dating back to December 2022.Earlier, South Africa's De Zorzi resumed on 81 at the start of the day and carried the fight to Pakistan, completing his second Test century with a six and two singles off Noman.The left-hander finally holed out for 104 to long-on off Noman, where Shaheen Shah Afridi took a low catch, ending a 208-minute innings containing 10 fours and two sixes.Noman, who bowled a probing 35 overs, also removed Prenelan Subrayen for four during the session.Fellow spinner Sajid took the first wicket of the day when he had Muthusamy caught by Salman Agha for 11.He then wrapped up the innings when he bowled Rabada for nought to finish with 3-98 off 33 overs.BRIEF SCORES:outh Africa 51 for 2 (Rickelton 29*, Noman 2-20) and 269 (de Zorzi 104, Noman 6-112, Sajid 3-98) need another 226 runs to beat Pakistan 167 (Babar 42, Muthusamy 5-57, Harmer 4-51) and 378 (Agha 93, Imam 93, Muthusamy 6-117)

Spinner Noman Ali grabbed four wickets to restrict South Africa to 216-6 at the close of play on day two of the first Test in Lahore on Monday, despite a fighting half century from Tony de Zorzi.Spinners dominated on a turning Gaddafi Stadium pitch as all the day's 11 wickets went to slow bowlers, with South African left-armer Senuran Muthusamy taking a career-best 6-117 to dismiss Pakistan for 378.De Zorzi was holding the fort at the close with 81 not out and Muthusamy on six as South Africa trail by 162 runs in the first innings.De Zorzi batted with guts, knocking nine boundaries and a six, combating Noman who claimed 4-85.South Africa started off well with 45-0 on the board when Noman removed touring skipper Aiden Markram for 20 and Wiaan Mulder for 17 -- both caught behind by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.Ryan Rickelton, who scored a punishing 71 with two sixes and nine boundaries, and De Zorzi added 94 for the third wicket, taking on the spinners with some aggressive shots.It was part-timer Salman Agha who broke the stand by forcing an edge from Rickelton with Babar Azam taking a smart low catch in the slips.Noman returned for his third spell to get Tristan Stubbs caught behind for eight and Kyle Verreynne leg-before for two while Sajid Khan removed Dewald Brevis for a golden duck."We need to get them out as early as possible and a 120-run lead would help us win this Test," said Noman."This pitch will further help spinners in the coming days so it's good for us."Earlier, it was Noman's like-for-like left-armer Muthusamy who destroyed Pakistan after they resumed on 313-5, losing their last five wickets for just 16 runs.Muthusamy, who bettered his previous Test best of 4-45 against Bangladesh in Chattogram last year, said: "It was really nice to add value to the team by getting wickets."It was not ideal to have lost wicket close to stumps, but we will fight back tomorrow."Agha hit five fours and three sixes in his 93 and was last man out, caught in the deep off spinner Prenelan Subrayen, who took 2-78.Agha added 49 with Rizwan to take their sixth-wicket stand to 163 before Muthusamy ripped out the middle order with three wickets in the 12th over of the day.Rizwan was the first to go, for 75, when he edged a sharply turning ball to wicketkeeper Verreynne after a knock containing two fours and two sixes.Two balls later Noman went without scoring, bowled when he played down the wrong line and then Sajid Khan followed first ball, caught in the slips.It became 378-9 when Muthusamy bowled Shaheen Shah Afridi, on seven, for his sixth wicket.BRIEF SCORES:South Africa 216 for 6 (De Zorzi 81*, Rickelton 71, Noman 4-85) trail Pakistan 378 (Agha 93, Imam 93, Masood 76, Muthusamy 6-117) by 162 runs

Pakistan rode on a brilliant 93 from Imam-ul-Haq to reach 313-5 after a brief fightback from South Africa on the opening day of the first Test in Lahore on Sunday.Shan Masood hit 76, but Haq missed out on his hundred and Pakistan slumped to 199-5 as four wickets fell quickly.Mohammad Rizwan, 62 not out, and Salman Agha, unbeaten 52 at the close, rebuilt the innings during an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 114 in the final session on a spin-friendly Gaddafi Stadium pitch.Rizwan hit two fours and two sixes in his 12th Test half-century while Agha had two fours and a six in reaching his 10th fifty.Pakistan dominated most of the first two sessions, but then had a mini-collapse from 163-1 to 199-5 as they lost four wickets for 36 runs, the last three without adding a run either side of the tea interval."We have batted us to a good position," said Haq, playing his first Test since December 2023."We must score over 400 to get us in a strong position. Regarding missing a hundred, that's always disappointing."Spinner Prenelan Subrayen trapped Masood lbw for 76, including nine fours and a six, to end a 161-run stand with Haq.Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy then had Haq caught at short-leg by Tony de Zorzi, after a 236-minute knock that included seven fours and a six.Next ball - the last before tea - Muthusamy had Saud Shakeel caught and bowled to bring South Africa back into the game at 199-4.Local hero Babar Azam fell for 23, trapped leg-before by Harmer after the interval to make it 199-5 and leave a good 10,000 holiday crowd disappointed.South Africa could have been in a better position had they not dropped Masood on 61 and Haq on 72 with Subrayen the unlucky bowler on both occasions.South Africa spinner Simon Harmer hoped they could finish off the Pakistan innings quickly on day two."We had a good day and now need to take positives from today and keep Pakistan under 400," he said."That would be great because this pitch will take more spin as the match progresses," said Harmer, who had figures of 1-75.With the pitch likely to turn, Masood opted to bat after winning the toss and named specialist spin duo Noman Ali and Sajid Khan in the teamPakistan lost opener Abdullah Shafique leg before to pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada off the third ball of the day.South African captain Aiden Markram turned to his spinners in the sixth over and by lunch had used all three -- Subrayen, Harmer and Muthusamy.But there were no further dramas in the opening session as Pakistan reached 107-1 at lunch after Haq had brought up his 10th Test fifty.The two-match series is part of the new World Test Championship two-year cycle. South Africa won the title by beating Australia in June.

South Africa captain Aiden Markram says his side can expect to have a target on their back when they begin a new cycle of the World Test Championship as defending champions.South Africa play a two-Test series in Pakistan, starting on Sunday, and two games in India in November as they bid to retain the trophy they won in June by beat Australia by five wickets at Lord’s.The World Test Championship is decided at the end of a two-year cycle, with the top two teams competing in a one-off five-day match.“I suppose you create a bit of a target on your back if you’ve won (the WTC), and if that’s the case, it’s fair. We want to chase a place in the final again and lift that trophy once again but realise each team will be coming for us,” said Markram, who stands in as skipper for Temba Bavuma who has been ruled out of the tour with a calf strain.“We, as a team, have to keep getting better and improving and playing well in all different types of conditions. It starts for us in Pakistan, and it’s a challenge the boys will be up for,” he told a press conference on Monday.South Africa have been practising on specially prepared spinning wickets at Pretoria’s High Performance Centre.“There were a couple of nets prepared where the spin is really exaggerated, and you’d rather err on that side, and maybe then it’s a bit easier when we get to Pakistan,” Markram said.“We’re expecting to face a lot of spin over there, and it’s also, naturally, a lot lower there from a seam point of view,” Markram said.“There’s a lot of skiddy, so it’s hard to try and emulate that here in South Africa, but we’ve been looking to put a lot of emphasis on finding a way to train for that.”The first Test against Pakistan is in Lahore and the second begins on October 20 in Rawalpindi.

England flexed their muscles in their Women's World Cup opener with a ruthless 10-wicket demolition of South Africa in Guwahati on Friday.After bowling out the Proteas for a paltry 69 in just 20.4 overs, England's openers Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones made light work of the chase, cantering home in 14.1 overs.Electing to bowl first, England rolled the dice early by tossing the new ball to spin, a move captains often shy away from in the power play. But left-arm tweaker Linsey Smith turned out to be the ace up their sleeve, exploiting a tacky surface that had South Africa groping in the dark."To get that start was very special. I only found out Friday that I was opening the bowling and I was excited for the challenge. The conditions suited me well," said Smith.It was just Smith's fifth ODI, but the 30-year-old is no stranger to international cricket, having been part of England's T20 side since 2018. Now a permanent fixture in the 50-over team, her willingness to bowl in the danger zone of the power play could be a trump card for England going forward in this campaign.Smith struck in each of her first three overs and was unlucky not to bag a fourth when a stumping chance off Sinalo Jafta went begging. Jafta clung on grimly for 22, the lone South African to reach double figures in a sorry tale of collapse.It was the Proteas' third lowest total in ODIs and their worst against England.The chase was little more than a formality, though Jones survived a let-off on 31 when Masabata Klaas spilled a return catch. She finished unbeaten on 40 with Beaumont on 21 not out."Not the way we wanted to start the tournament. We've shown resilience in the past and we'll bounce back," South African skipper Laura Wolvaardt insisted as her batters were left searching for answers.England's dominance was such that Heather Knight, marking her 150th ODI appearance wasn't required to bat or bowl as her team-mates were so dominant against South Africa. She became only the second player from England to feature in 150 women's ODIs.The emphatic win vaulted England to the top of the points table with all eight teams now having played one game each.BRIEF SCORES:England 73 for 0 (Jones 40*) beat South Africa 69 (Jafta 22, Smith 3-7, Sciver-Brunt 2-5) by ten wickets

Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) is participating in the 9th Aviation Africa Summit, organized by the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), currently taking place in Kigali, Rwanda. QCAA Acting President Mohamed Faleh al-Hajri is heading Qatar's delegation to the event, which began Thursday and will continue over two days. The summit addresses several key themes, including the future of the aviation industry in Africa, prospects for sector growth, sustainability, safety, risk assessment, and the challenges facing aviation. It also covers airport development and emerging technologies in the field. In his opening remarks during the 'Regional Cooperation' session, al-Hajri emphasized that the future of aviation in Africa hinges on enhanced co-operation between governments, regulatory bodies, and regional and international organizations. He reaffirmed Qatar's commitment as a strategic partner of AFCACto supporting such co-operation and working with African nations to build capacity and unlock the full potential of the continent’s aviation sector. Al-Hajri also highlighted Qatar's role in supporting Africa’s aviation agenda on the international stage, particularly through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He noted that the Qatar Airways network of passenger and cargo services plays a vital role in connecting Africa with the rest of the world, significantly contributing to air connectivity, as well as the promotion of trade, tourism, and cultural exchange. He concluded by stressing that Qatar's partnership with AFCAC and civil aviation authorities across African countries reflects not only its commitment to cooperation with the continent, but also its prominent role in shaping the future of global aviation.

South Africa will be without striker-bowler Kagiso Rabada for today’s opening One Day International against England at Headingley, captain Temba Bavuma revealed ahead of the clash.The 30-year-old is still recovering from an ankle injury suffered in Australia, where South Africa won a three-match ODI series last month.Matthew Breetzke, who has started his ODI career with four consecutive scores of 50 or more, injured his hamstring in the second of the ODIs against Australia and also sits out the opening clash against England as a precautionary measure.Teenage pace bowler Kwena Maphaka, 19, will also not play as Bavuma said his workload was being managed, but he could yet feature in the limited overs clashes in England. The three ODIs are followed by three Twenty20 internationals.“Kwena is an exciting player; he is still probably on the raw side, but that makes him even more exciting. He is a bit more awkward to face than other lefties, and he may have a role to play in these weather conditions,” Bavuma told a press conference Monday.Veteran pinch-hitter David Miller also misses out on the ODIs but is in the squad for the T20s. He remains in contention for the 2027 World Cup squad, added Bavuma.The 36-year-old has not played international cricket since the Champions Trophy in March and missed the tour to Australia because he was playing in the Hundred competition in England.“Any international commitments that occurred during the Hundred, David wasn’t available for. Unfortunately, he wasn’t part of our build-up for the ODIs. But then with the T20 stuff, the Hundred is done, he’ll fall back into the team,” the South Africa captain explained. “David’s still within the mix in the ODI stuff,” he added.Baker to make England debut in South Africa ODIPace bowler Sonny Baker will make his England debut in the first one-day international against South Africa today after impressing in the Hundred.The 22-year-old will line up alongside Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse in a three-man pace attack at Headingley.Baker took nine wickets in seven appearances for the Manchester Originals in the Hundred franchise competition, including a hat-trick against England white-ball captain Harry Brook’s Northern Superchargers last month.“He’s been awesome in the Hundred. We’ve seen him bowl at some of the best batters in the world and he’s had them on toast,” said Brook.The skipper praised Baker’s pace, ability to swing the ball and his bowling at the end of matches.“Quite a lot of people are excited to see where he goes,” he added. “It looks like he has quite a lot about him.”The team announcement came as England all-rounder Jamie Overton ruled himself out of contention for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia, placing his red-ball career on hold.“After a great deal of thought I have decided to take an indefinite break from red-ball cricket,” the Surrey paceman posted on social media. “At this stage of my career, with the demands of cricket across a 12-month calendar, it’s no longer possible to commit fully to all formats at every level, both physically and mentally.”The 31-year-old won his second Test cap against India in late July and had a strong chance of featuring in the squad for the Ashes despite a mixed outing at the Oval. Brook was taken aback by Overton’s decision, saying: “I’m a little bit shocked to be honest. I’d heard rumours but I hadn’t heard it from him until today. It would have been nice to have him there in the Ashes. When he is fully fit and firing he bowls thunderbolts and he can whack it out of the park.”Overton was last month named in England’s white-ball squad to face South Africa but head coach Brendon McCullum has preferred Baker for the opening match. The first ODI in Leeds kicks off a three-match series against the Proteas, which is followed by three T20s.SquadsEngland team: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (capt), Jos Buttler (wkt), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Sonny BakerSouth AfricaAiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton (wicketkeeper), Temba Bavuma (captain), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Wiaan Mulder, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.

A 16-year-old in a yellow spandex Wolverine suit, claws fashioned from plastic straws, squared off against a stockier Deadpool two years his junior at Comic Con Africa, the continent's largest pop culture gathering.At this year's festival held at the same venue set to host G20 leaders in November the stars weren't on stage. They were the fans.Thousands of self-professed nerds, comic book lovers, superhero fans and anime obsessives descended on the Johannesburg venue, undeterred by a noticeably slimmed-down celebrity lineup.Highlights nonetheless included Dan Fogler, best known for playing Jacob Kowalski in the Harry Potter spin-off "Fantastic Beasts".Around 70,000 people were expected to attend the convention, which runs from Thursday through Sunday.Among them was Tshegofatso Nabe, attending for the fourth year in a row.The teenager left nothing to chance this time, maxing out her savings on a striking blonde-and-blue wig, coloured contact lenses, high platform shoes and delicate angel wings that seemed to sprout from the back of her head.Her inspiration? Sunday, a villain from "Honkai: Star Rail", a Chinese-built game where anime characters battle space monsters."The cosplay community is so kind and this is the only time in the year when I can experience the joy of wearing this costume outside without someone looking at me weirdly," she said, as Wonder Woman, Darth Vader and Spider-Man mingled nearby."There aren't many conventions in Africa, and this is the only chance to express ourselves and connect with people who are in the same fandom," she added.South Africa, often considered one of Africa's most progressive countries, still grapples with conservative attitudes that sometimes view cosplay and fandom culture as trivial.Originally, Comic Con began as a grassroots event for comic books fans to meet but it has grown exponentially and is today used by studios to launch their latest blockbuster movies and TV shows.At the Johannesburg event, competitors also battled it out in popular eSports games like "FIFA", with contests interspersed with music.In another corner, rows of teenagers with headphones clamped to their ears gazed into curved screens, their gaming stage bathed in the pulsating glow of strobe lights."We are on par with Comic Con festivals in Europe and America," said exhibitor and former gaming champion Elias Machete. "People are trying to look at the numbers but the quality here is so beautiful."Damian Wilson, a 31-year-old salesman who returned for the third year, agreed: "We are just here for the vibes."

Africa has become a new hotspot for Chinese exports as Donald Trump’s tariffs redraw trade for the world’s biggest manufacturing nation.With a 25% on-year jump to $122bn, growth in sales to the continent of 1.5bn people has far outpaced other major markets this year while orders from the US slumped. China’s exports to Africa so far in 2025 are more than in the whole of 2020 and on track to exceed $200bn for the first time.Although the trading relationship shows no sign of becoming less lopsided, with China running a far wider surplus with Africa than last year, Beijing is cracking open its domestic market while seizing on the chance to meet the continent’s infrastructure needs.“Chinese exporters have done a genuinely impressive job of diversifying into emerging markets in recent years, including in Africa,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics. “The weaker yuan this year has probably also made Chinese exports more competitive in African countries.” The trade war has supercharged a boom that was years in the making, spearheaded by President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative unveiled in 2013. And as Chinese companies snapped up contracts to build everything from railways to industrial parks across the continent, the demand for the machinery and materials to complete these projects followed this year.Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are the biggest African buyers of Chinese products. Construction machinery was among China’s fastest growing exports to Africa in the first seven months, surging 63% year on year.Shipments of passenger cars more than doubled from a year earlier and some steel products expanded in high double digits. At the same time, Africa’s share of China’s total exports remains modest at about 6%, roughly half the level for the US.Some goods destined for the US are possibly being diverted through Africa, according to Gavekal’s Beddor, a tactic known as transshipment.Rising protectionism in Washington has given extra incentive for Africa to buy from Beijing. A number of goods from more than 30 nations on the continent that had duty-free access to American markets granted under the African Growth and Opportunity Act are now being subjected to a range of tariffs by the Trump administration.In the first half of 2025 alone, Africa inked $30.5bn in construction contracts with China, according to a July report from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance & Development Center, founded at Shanghai-based Fudan University. That’s five times the amount during the same period last year and the most among all regions included in Xi’s infrastructure initiative.And in a counterpoint to Trump, Xi said in June that China is removing levies on imports from all African nations with which it has diplomatic ties.During the same month, the government in Beijing allowed imports of agricultural products from Ethiopia, Congo, Gambia, and Malawi, bringing to 19 the number of African countries with access to China’s market.In Africa, China could bring know-how and its vast industrial machine to a continent struggling with costly logistics and held back by its patchy infrastructure, with less than half of the population having reliable electricity access.African nations have been ordering more solar panels from China, with imports of the clean-energy technology surging 60% in the 12 months through June, according to climate think tank Ember. Over the last two years, purchases of Chinese solar panels to the continent beyond South Africa have tripled, Ember said in a report this week.“Energy resources remain unevenly distributed in Africa, with some nations heavily reliant on imports” like oil, said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank under the Ministry of Commerce.“Alternatives offered by China, such as solar and wind power as well as electric cars, can help African countries overcome energy bottlenecks, prompting them to increase imports from the country in pursuit of energy independence and economic development,” he said.Affordability is another factor working in China’s favour. Despite higher demand, prices for 14 out of the 18 major Chinese goods shipped to Africa actually fell on a yearly basis in the January-July period, with transformers and converters posting the deepest decline of 39%.China is also bringing financial muscle to the continent with the world’s fastest-growing population, often in the form of backing from state-owned banks. Only in recent months, China Development Bank released a €245mn ($286mn) first tranche of funding for a railway project in Nigeria and extended a loan for infrastructure construction in Egypt.Although most of the commodities imported from Africa to China are priced in dollars, the expanding trade footprint will probably help the yuan make inroads in corporate and government balance sheets.Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are among the four countries on the continent that already have bilateral currency swaps with the central bank in Beijing — a list that includes Mauritius. Kenya has announced it’s in talks to convert some dollar-denominated loans to yuan to help ease the strain of debt.“China obviously benefits from greater use of its currency in the financial system – so that’s the incentive to offer preferential terms if they swap currency debt,” said David Omojomolo, Africa economist at Capital Economics. “I do expect heavily exposed countries to China in terms of debt like Angola will perhaps follow Kenya’s lead on this yuan swap if it’s pulled off.”Chinese goods barred or resisted elsewhere are meanwhile receiving little pushback in Africa. Exports of steel and iron components — used to build bridges, towers and scaffolding — climbed 43%.Sales of batteries spiked 41%, and transformers and converters, including inverters that adapt electricity from solar panels and wind systems to power home appliances and industrial equipment, soared nearly 25%.For now, China has yet to encounter the kind of backlash seen from countries around the world that fear the flood of cheaper goods. But it’s a risk in a region already worried about falling further into debt to China, especially if the exports begin to crowd out local producers.But Beijing will tread carefully since the continent is critical as a source of key commodities and a growth market for its companies. What’s more, it’s become a central arena for China’s aspirations on the world stage.“Africa is where China takes its firms and brands global — they get experience, create markets, and win brand recognition,” said Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa expert of New South Economics, a consultancy in Melbourne. “It is important for China’s global development leadership push.”