UNDERSTANDING THE COMING OF THE CHINESE SHOE GIANT TO ABIA STATE.

by Onyendilefu C.
We have been told that Chinese shoe giant, Hujian Shoe manufacturing company will debut in Nigeria very soon. They are coming to Abia with an investment portfolio worth $1.5 million.
But Hujian manufacturing is not the only company that is Abia bound from China owing to the recent effort of Dr. Ikpeazu at attracting Foreign Direct Investment to our state. CRW Ceramics Ltd, Hawtai motor manufacturing and Rochmachues, a Chinese equipment manufacturing company have also indicated interest in locating their businesses in Abia State.
Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) has been a major policy trust of the Nigerian successive governments. In fact government after government in Nigeria have had their economic successes and failures rated against the backdrop of their ability or failure to attract FDIs.
The reasons are simple. Foreign Direct Investments supplement domestic investment contrary to the fear that it stifles local manufacturers. FDIs create employment directly and through its value chain and collateral establishments, contract unemployment and lower it significantly. It also engenders increased domestic competition.
Technology is also transferred through this process leading to increase in production levels which in turn have positive impact on our local economic indices.
So why is the coming of the Chinese shoe giant being criticised so very virulently?
The most strident argument I have heard is that it will kill the bourgeoning Aba shoe business which Dr. Ikpeazu has since becoming Governor been its major sales representative. People who canvass this opinion maintain that the Chinese firm with its expertise in shoe making will drive indigenous small and medium Enterprises involved in shoe production out of business.
But is this true? I will like to answer this question by asking a set of questions. Why have we not had a local tyre producing company since the exit of Michelin and Dunlop? Why have we not had another indigenous company producing volkswagen after the Volkswagen of Nigerian collapsed? Do we still have a Peugeot assembly plant in Nigeria?
Technology can be acquired or transferred. We missed it previously when we failed to copy the manufacturing blueprint of those companies before they left our Shores. That was because we didn’t have structures and willing artisans who had even a glint of the knowledge brought by those expatriate and so couldn’t embrace it.
That cannot happen again. The Aba shoe makers have skill. They will benefit from the advancement in technology that would be brought by the Chinese firm by either acquiring, transferring or even stealing the technology just as the Chinese did too.
I agree with Chief Okey Ahiwe, the President of Ngwa Patriots Forum when he said that the misunderstanding of the Governor’s real intention by the people who criticize the coming of the Chinese shoe is because of lack of understanding of the accurate narrative. What our Governor has done is to bring a Chinese firm that will further enhance the skills of our local shoe manufacturers who already are well poised to grab the technology from them. It cannot be said that mechanized farming should not be encouraged because the peasant farmers will be ran out of their occupation. It makes no sense but that’s what people who say otherwise are really canvassing.
I want the Chinese firms to come. Our teeming youths need to be engaged. They will no longer give the stale excuse that they don’t have alternative to Okada and keke riding. Our apprenticeship education system has began to fail. Youths have lost faith in it because they hardly are settled even after apprenticeship, a reason why that type of education is no longer attractive. But with the coming of these companies, our youths especially at the rural areas will be motivated to take up employment that confer them life long benefits through hands on the job skill acquisition while at the same time earning money to take care of their dependants even as they work and learn the trade at the same time.