While at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC),  China pledged to offer more support to Africa in the arenas of  higher education and vocational training for development.

The Chinese government vowed to provide Africa with 50,000 government scholarships and 50,000 training opportunities for seminars and workshops as well as inviting 2,000 young Africans to visit China for exchanges.

By the end of 2018, China pledged to provide 30,000 scholarships to African students and financing of US$60 billion to implement 10 cooperation plans including higher education.

In his keynote address, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would “fully honour” their promises and increase opportunities for young Africans.

“Faced with new developments and challenges, China will continue to improve institution building, develop new ideas and expand areas of cooperation with Africa to bring our cooperation to greater heights,” Jinping said.

China is the second most popular destination for African students studying abroad after France, according to UNESCO. African students go to China mainly to study Chinese language courses or engineering because of the availability of scholarships, affordability and quality of the programmes.

According to Professor Oswald Ndoleriire, the Ugandan Director of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University, “the programme will expose learners to the intricacies of the fastest growing region in the world, and their application to the Ugandan context.”