Chinese surveillance tech rolled out in Africa with ZTE, Hikvision and Huawei at the helm

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, stands out as the largest market for Chinese surveillance equipment.

Under the “safe city” project, China provides surveillance technologies and credit lines that governments use to monitor public spaces and curb crime.

Photo: Getty Across major African cities such as Nairobi, Lusaka, and Abuja, governments are using surveillance technologies and credit lines from China to monitor public spaces and curb crime, a new survey shows.

The UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) said Chinese banks were increasingly funding African governments to build and maintain digital infrastructure – including surveillance cameras and command and control centres – under the “safe city” project, also known as “smart city”, which is part of the Digital Silk Road programme.

In a report released in March, researchers mapped smart city surveillance across 11 countries and found that Chinese companies supplied equipment and technology to every nation surveyed, including Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt.

However, despite being marketed for public safety, IDS researchers said African governments frequently repurposed the surveillance systems to monitor and repress political opposition, peaceful dissidents and human rights activists in the absence of adequate legal oversight. “Our new research shows that the rapid growth of smart city surveillance in Africa is occurring without adequate legal regulation or oversight,” said Tony Roberts, an independent digital rights researcher and co-author of the IDS “Smart City Surveillance in Africa” report. “Unregulated surveillance creates a chilling effect that inhibits the right to peaceful protest and reduces the freedom to speak truth to power and hold governments to account.” The report highlighted specific local fears such as in Zimbabwe where critics worried about being targeted by facial recognition, while in Mozambique, cameras were concentrated in political opposition strongholds.

Although authorities justified the technology as tools for counterterrorism, the study found mass surveillance in countries such as Zambia and Senegal that faced no such threats.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, stands out as the largest market for Chinese surveillance equipment.

China Exim Bank advanced US$399 million of the US$470 million that Abuja spent on a public security network built by Chinese tech firms ZTE and Hikvision.

In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, the federal government has depl

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