NAIROBI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between China and Africa will benefit the continent and its people, an analyst has said, dismissing criticism from the West.

Mohamed Hussein Abdille, director of the Confucius Institute at Kenya's Egerton University, told Xinhua in a recent interview that with China's backing, African leaders have resolved to steer their nations to prosperity without consulting former colonial masters.

As the cooperation between China and Africa has been steadily growing in recent years, some voices in the West say that China is a predatory lender bent on saddling Africa with debt to obtain political influence and greedy for the continent's natural resources.

"The Chinese government never forces anyone to borrow their money. The African governments have willingly signed their agreements and know they are borrowing for development issues for progress," said Abdille.

He said that for a long time, Africa received aid and loans from Western countries, but the continent did not progress to the level of development it has reached today. Also, Abdille said that Africa was colonized and severely mistreated by the West.

Moreover, he said there is plenty of propaganda in the West against China and that the Western countries have tried their best to contain China's economic and political progress.

Chinese investment in Africa has been rising steadily over recent years. At the end of 2009, the total sum was 93.3 billion U.S. dollars. Now it is more than 100 billion dollars, covering almost every single country on the continent.

China has become an important source of financing for African nations thirsty for funds to fuel their development.

While the Western nations have laid strict restrictions on their loans and grants to malnourished Africa, the continent now enjoys subsidized loans without any strict restrictions on it to develop itself, Abdille said.

The analyst said that African nations which have made use of the loans from China are progressing.

"Charity for all and malice towards none is the concept China is advancing. Africa is open for business on win-win partnership," he said.