The rapid growth in mobile access has relied on hardware sourced from Europe and East Asia, including Korea and Japan. Chinese companies have been very active in selling telecommunications equipment across Africa, including cellular base stations, switches, and handsets. Huawei, for example, has supplied 70% of 4G base stations operating on the continent.[12]

The price of the equipment and the financing have provided the edge for the system-wide build-out using Chinese equipment. Market observers say state banks offer financing to exporters, which is China's way of subsidising the vendors. These savings are then passed to buyers through lower prices in the recipient country. It is difficult to identify exactly how much credit China’s export banks have provided for hardware suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE. According to a 2013 report from China’s Ministry of Finance, financing from external sources accounted for 7.6% of Huawei’s investment capital and 24.8% of ZTE’s.[13] Experts have argued that what makes China’s aid to Africa different from traditional overseas development assistance is the involvement of state-owned enterprises.[14]

State financing support towards large-scale buildouts has not been lost on US, Japanese, or European companies. Infrastructure deals became imbued with geopolitics. In May 2021, a US-backed consortium won a license in Ethiopia with a bid of US$850 million, considerably higher than that of the competitors.[15] The key differentiator: The bid came with a finance package from US aid agency the International Development Finance Corp (formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation) and the CDC Group, their counterpart from the UK, which outlines specific conditions on its loans, including human rights.[16] Although the terms of the loan are not public, there may be additional conditions attached, such as the country source of the equipment used.[17] The lower priced bids included competitors that are long time partners of Chinese manufacturers who have financial backing from China’s state-owned Silk Road Fund.[18]