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African heads of state have started arriving in the resort city of Sochi ahead of the inaugural Russia-Africa summit, taking place on October 23-24. Dozens of leaders from across the continent are expected to attend the occasion.

Hosted Vladimir Putin, it’s the centrepiece of recent efforts by Russia to rekindle Cold War era ties with Africa, focused on energy deals, mining, and arms trading.

Moscow’s renewed interest has spooked the West, fueling talk of a ‘new scramble for Africa’ pitting the US and Europe against competition from Russia and China. It’s a throwback to the Cold War, with African governments seen to be confronted with an East versus West choice.

The focus is generally on which side is more concerned with helping Africa, rather than exploiting it.

This makes for good news headlines, but largely misses the point.

Russia is just the latest on growing list of suitors – including the likes of Japan, India, Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia – vying for political and economic influence on the continent.

The priority for African governments should not be on picking sides, but leveraging this interest to support their development needs. This means striking the best possible deals with the most suitable partners, which could be East, West, both, or neither.

This report reflects the views of the author alone, not those of How we made it in Africa.

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Today’s picks

From the continent

Mobile operator Airtel Africa and pan-African lender Ecobank have signed a mobile financial payments partnership. The deal will allow Airtel mobile money customers to access a range of services including money transfers, payments, savings, and loans using the bank’s digital financial services ecosystem. More: Africanews

Rwanda on Monday inaugurated a $35 million dry port facility, part of plans to turn the country into a regional logistics hub. Operated by Dubai-based DP World, the Kigali Logistics Platform has annual capacity of 640,000 tonnes of warehousing space. More: Xinhua

The global perspective

The World Bank has reportedly agreed a $3 billion loan with Nigeria to fund the expansion of electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure. Africa’s biggest economy, which suffers from chronic power shortages, hopes to secure the first $750 million tranche by April 2020, according to finance minister Zainab Ahmed. More: The Cable

South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom is seeking to recover $14 million relating to contracts allegedly improperly awarded to professional services firm Deloitte in 2016. The company is the latest big name to face accusations of misconduct linked to alleged corruption under former president Jacob Zuma, with Germany’s SAP, KPMG having faced similar claims. More: Reuters

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