Turkish companies in Africa move fast to compete with China

From manufacturing to construction and mining, the agility and risk-appetite of Turkish companies is increasingly putting them toe-to-toe with Chinese competitors in Africa, regional experts say.

Reuters/Feisal Omar | An official walks past the Turkish embassy in Somalia's capital Mogadishu

• Backed by international finance

• Active in a range of sectors

• Bilateral trade up seven-fold

Backed by international finance and the Turkish government, the country is fast emerging as a powerhouse on the continent.

“Often in Washington, there’s a conversation about US companies trying to compete in infrastructure in African markets,” Aubrey Hruby, an Africa-focused investor and senior adviser to the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, said last week, “but really those that are competing for the projects are Turkish.”

Hruby said that Turkey’s commercial presence in dozens of African countries “has rapidly increased,” and is “quite broad”, while speaking at an event held by Atlantic Council, a US think tank.

Construction, manufacturing, energy and mining are among the industries where Turkish companies are most active.

Behind the expansion is a deepening of ties, from Turkish Airlines increasing flight routes to about three-quarters of African nations, to the dozens of Turkish embassies that have opened on the continent over the past two decades, speakers said.

But it is agility and flexibility which distinguishes Turkish companies, according to Hruby.

She recalled when Turkish investment bank Aktif Bank’s senior management were introduced to Nigerian stakeholders. Within four days, Turkish executives were already on the ground in Lagos to discuss business.

“If I made those same introductions for a US entity, they would spend months just trying to settle when the first Zoom call will be,” Hruby said. “It’s that mobilisation capacity that is unique and that, I think, helps Turkish companies compete with the Chinese.”

“I don’t even see that in the UAE, they’re not on the ground as fast,” she said.

Bilateral trade with Africa has risen more than seven-fold to $37 billion in 2023 over the past two decades. Ankara hopes to increase it to $50 billion in the shortest time possible, Cevdet Yılmaz, the vice president, said at the end of last year. Yilmaz said that Turkish investors have poured in about $10 billion across the continent.

Turkish contractors are working on more than 2,300 projects worth $98 billion, trade minister Omer Bolat said last month.

While involvement has traditionally concentrated on North Africa, it is increasingly expanding across sub-Saharan Africa.

Turkey has recently signed deals for oil and gas exploration in Somalia, Libya and Senegal, among others. It is the second-largest foreign investor in Ethiopia, with about $2.5 billion worth of interests in textiles, agriculture and digital infrastructure.

Major expansion

With fisheries in Mauritania, a steel plant in Angola and cocoa investments in the Ivory Coast, Turkish players are “expanding geographically and sector-wide,” across Africa said Mustafa Aksoy, chairman of mining company Lidya Madencilik, which is owned by Çalık Holding, a conglomerate that includes construction and energy divisions, and Aktif Bank.

Aksoy said Çalık Holding takes a “bundled” approach to working in Africa, simultaneously deploying its various arms to build underlying infrastructure, develop and operate mines, and devise financing.

“Most of the countries in Africa have limited financing capacity,” he said. “We are bringing financing from Japan, Europe, the US and from Turkey.”

In December 2023, Turkey’s trade finance arm, Turk Eximbank, became the first non-African sovereign stakeholder of the African Finance Corporation.

High interest rates constrain domestic institutions from backing even urgent projects, especially at the early stages, said Serge Nawej Tshitembu co-managing partner for the ProximA International LLP law firm in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Nobody wants to fund the exploration, they rather fund the production,” he said.

By Valentina Pasquali

September 16, 2025, 2:53 PM