A Road in an Odd Skirt and Blouse
As I write, two different construction companies undertake the building of 127.6Km Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Nigeria. The road, which connects Lagos (Nigeria’s most populous State) to Ibadan (capital of Oyo State), also serves as the major route to the northern and eastern parts of the country. It is the busiest single road in Africa, with more than sixty percent of the nation’s land transport and logistics economy centered on it.

Before now, the expressway had been notoriously deplorable on the Benin-Ore highway. The level of dilapidation was horrible, to say the least. But after many years of public outcry, auto crashes and needless loss of lives and property, the reconstruction project was eventually awarded. Two of the three major international players in Nigeria’s road construction sector – then – Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC) won the bids.

The road was allegedly completed during the then former General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military era in 1978. Apparently, nothing was done towards refurbishment and maintenance of road until the return of Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian President in 1999. An incomputable eight years of Obasanjo’s administration were wasted in a bureaucratic contract arrangement with Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited (BCHSL), an indigenous construction company owned by the Nigerian Businessman and Lawyer, Tunde Babalakin.

A good portion of the road was still a death-trap in 2012, after President Goodluck Jonathan’s four-year tenure in office. The contractors traded blame and made all manner untenable excuses for not delivering on promise till Jonathan left office.

A few days ago, I undertook a journey and plied the road in question. Different parts of the highway were partitioned into sections with cautionary signs indicating a particular vendor’s work-in-progress. I overheard fellow commuters argue for and against the company doing a better job and the one causing traffic havoc with their activities. “Why didn’t they give the construction to one company?” One of the passengers suddenly asked out of curiosity. “Who knows…” the other had given a simple but unsatisfying response.

We noted the change at the Sagamu interchange to Ibadan as the vehicle slipped from a pitch black way, lined in-between with a single file of brick, to a grey way demarcated by a surface drainage system.

Going by my observation, during the trip, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway would be one patchwork of civil engineering with two varying qualities. It might bear a signature of two different designs; in order words, what I have tagged a “road in an odd skirt and blouse.”

This is illustrative of the state of the Nigerian development outlook.

Still The Choice Maiden
The commercial lewdness in the Nigerian space by foreign companies is nothing new. In fact, Nigeria as an entity is the largest product of business activities by companies of foreign nationals in Africa.

In the late nineteenth century, before the amalgamation, the Royal Niger Company was formed by conglomerates of British companies trying to ward off competitors of German and French nationals. Royal Niger, with the backing of the British government, eventually achieved its aim, monopolising trade routes and business activities from the then Fulani emirates down to the lower Niger river, and eventually came up with the idea of amalgamating regions of their businesses into a Potemkin village.

A little over a century, the outlook of the nation is still very much like an economic utility rather than a socio-political entity. Developments are not culturally driven. Instead, ideas of social and economic growth are directly Western and, in recent times, Asian imports. So one sees overhead bridges in places where people won’t use them or are being forced to do so, or a man proudly adorning a shirt with inscriptions of a language he’s never heard of; or a beautiful park at the centre of the city no one visits because there are scoundrels sleeping at its gates.
Politicians govern with no political will. Shares in private companies bought by individuals in government dictate government policies—civil servants are clandestine businessmen and women. Indigenous companies which should have been birthed by homegrown academic institutions remained grounded, with students in tertiary institutions internalising and regurgitating chronologically misplaced academic syllabi.

Africa, particularly Nigeria remains a raw resource and a toast to more powerful economies of the world.

In the international community, however, where the race for the most powerful nation in the world is yet to reach the finished line, Africa, whose indigenous institutions and companies are yet to own their space in terms of self-sustainable production of goods and services, remains the destination for the final lap of this race.

The Third Musketeer
In 1979, Deng Xiaoping, a Chinese leader, in what one could rightly argue was a twist in political ideology, a transforming economic strategy, nonetheless, implemented basic and fundamental economic reforms. China, a densely populated nation, mired in the throes of abject poverty, magically sprang to a superpower economy in less than a decade. One of such transforming policies was opening up China for trade with virtually all the nations of the world, and most especially, with Africa. The move reiterated one fact: to truly be a great nation is to have your presence stamped in the African space.

Today, in Nigerian, we are experiencing the full force effect of that reform mostly in infrastructural development. There are 120 different federal and state infrastructural projects by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) going on or completed in Nigeria, said Shi Hongbing, CEO, CCECC, during a television interview. Among these projects are the very big ones, like the interstate railroad projects linking Lagos through to Abuja and up to Kano; the medium ones, like the Lagos Rail Mass Transit from Okokomaiko through Mile2 up to Marina; and the mini ones, such as the road rehabilitation of the NNPC Ejigbo Road through Canoe to Ajao Estate.

Before the advent of the Chinese, these contracts, which are obviously of different standards and magnitude, would have been awarded, for example, to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, John Kaid Construction Company, and/or Emerson Construction Limited respectively. What’s Chinese construction company doing rightly to wade through the very complex Nigerian terrain, beating other construction companies at all levels in Nigeria?

Political Undercurrents
Just like the Niger Royal Company in the late nineteenth century Nigeria, the Chinese firms are not just private companies, they are strongly backed by their home government. But unlike enacting political policies (which couldn’t have been possible in the present world political dispensation) over Africa to shape the space for business, the China penetrates with decisive economic weapons.

In December 2015, China’s current president, Xi Jinping, in a China-Africa summit held in South Africa, announced a USD 60 billion funds for Africa Development. It is the largest of its kind, ranging from granting zero interest loans to government projects, enlarging foreign direct investment, and providing capitals in various fund institutions created to aid developments on the continent. One of the African leaders has called this move ‘God sent’. It, therefore, would only be profitable for Nigeria’s and by extension, Africa’s political office holders, to shelve even companies owned by their buddies and key into this bounty.

Before this climax, however, it would be interesting to trace the appearance of the Chinese (as investors) in the Nigerian space back to the mid-1990s.

According to a Nigerian Historian and activist, AJ Dagga- Tolar, the Chinese became an option as international economic partner for Nigeria when General Sani Abacha, the then Nigerian military dictator, among his many anti-democratic policies and actions, executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and his cohorts to forestall the human right movements rising from the oil-rich Ogoni land.

Nigerians and the international community frowned at this. Increasing hostility towards the West by the Abacha government prompted him to look towards an alternative super economy with whom he could tie. He looked towards China. But not much was achieved then, and not much would be heard of the Chinese investors until later into the Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s short tenure in office between 2007 and 2009.

In his book: Power, Politics and Death, Olusegun Adeniyi, the then spokesman for President Umaru Yar’Adua, shed light on the intents of the Chinese on the Nigerian soil and how they almost struck a deal with the Yar’Adua’s led government. He wrote about the Chinese consortium led by a certain Africa company; its proposal to the president to acquire a large number of oil and gas assets estimated to contain six billion barrels of oil reserves and offer USD 50 billion in an exchange with what they described as ‘alternative funding for infrastructural development in Nigeria’. It was said to be very difficult at that time to resist the offer.

The president had desperately wanted a reform in the oil sector which would translate to commensurate infrastructural development in the country. But after a scrutinising look into the deal by the Nigerian government (which did not go without lobbying and bribery within private and government interests), the idea was dropped only to resurface at the tail end of the president’s life on his sick bed and towards the abrupt end of his tenure. Coincidentally, or so it seems, both General Sani Abacha and President Musa Yar’adua died untimely in office before they could find any headway with the Chinese.

Kingsley
Today, the Chinese are in Nigeria, and infrastructural development is in full swing in several parts of the country. Could it be that the new government of Muhammadu Buhari eventually struck a deal? Or are they here on other social-political terms? What does their presence spell for other construction companies and how are Nigerians faring with the new trend?

I met with one Kingsley, a construction worker on a CCECC site in Lagos. I approached him because he looked to me a person of thought. It all started as I was catching my breath under the bridge, after a long walk. I caught a colleague of his, grouch on something obviously bothering him.
The colleague didn’t seem to be saying Kingsley had offended him. Obviously, he was talking to Kingsley because Kingsley was the listening type. They were discussing in Igbo language, so I understood nothing of their converse. Throughout their talk, Kingsley only chipped in once a long while into his colleague’s non-stop chatter, cutting him in calm but confident tone. Soon, the colleague seemed satisfied pouring out his mind and left. On the makeshift bench where they sat, Kingsley was about resting his back for a nap when I made a holla.

“Hello, bro! How’s work?”, I asked.

Seeing that I was coming to sit beside him, he stopped midway to lying down and shifted on the bench as he replied.

“Work dey fine.”

I asked why they were not working. Was there any problem?

“No, we dey for break. No problem at all.” he said.

Interestingly, he wasn’t looking puzzled or trying to know why I asked him those questions. So I kept on asking.

It was a few minutes to 1:00 pm. He said they observe lunch break for one and half hours, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. Work starts 7:30 am and closes 4:00 pm. Because I had been sitting out there for the major part of the break hours and had seen him with others meandering before eventually coming to sit for the long talk, I guessed he didn’t go for lunch, so I asked why he didn’t go for lunch since this seemed like the only time to take lunch.

“Break time nah break time…sometimes you go and eat, sometimes you go and sleep. When you don’t have money to eat, you sleep. Sometimes you just play around with friends.”

“Why would one not have money to eat? Are they not paying well here?”,I asked

“payment depends…” he said. “…On the rate you’re on.”

According to Kingsly, the rate of payments range between #850.00 (2.7 USD) to #1,050.00 (3.34 USD) per day. They are paid monthly. He doesn’t know if there are higher levels, but these levels are where himself and his colleagues operate on.

Kingsley just graduated from high school and wants to have a university degree. He would leave as soon as he has that opportunity; he doesn’t see himself finishing the project with the company; he can’t wait to leave.

“They will build this thing reach Ajah. It will take long time before they finish,” he explains.
Unlike some of his colleagues, Kingsley didn’t have prior experience with construction companies before taking up this job as iron bender last October. Many of his colleagues have worked in Julius Berger, RCC, Kaiser, Fountain Construction Company and other construction companies before coming here. On why they left those places for CCECC, Kingsley said they were dismissed due to lack of projects.

“Why do you think a project like this is given to CCECC instead of a company like Julius Berger which everyone knows do stuff like this?” I asked.

Kingsley thinks it’s all government policies. He said when the new government came, even CCECC was dismissing people before they started recruiting again. “All these things are government policies,” he said. On which of the companies is better: Julius Berger or CCECC, Kingsley didn’t let me complete the question before telling me the two companies are incomparable.

“Julius Berger is 100% better than this one. In terms of pay, in terms of human relation. Everything! Julius Berger pay more than double the amount they pay here. Most of us are here because we don’t have choice,” he concluded.

By this time, it was ten minutes past one. Work was to start soon. We saw a couple of Chinese Engineers strolling up to a crawler excavator.

“It was nice talking with you, Kingsley. My name is Dare” I said.

“I be Kingsley.”

We shook hands and I left.

The Quasi Development Scheme
Industry watchers argue that infrastructural development projects in Nigeria are more of propaganda tools than any meaningful development. Politicians base successes of their administrations on how many Kilometres of road constructed or rehabilitated in their tenures. Unlike investment in human capacity development or funding existing educational institutions and initiating new ones, physical constructions are concrete, can be measured and have a direct influence on all and sundry.

Unfortunately, what propels physical development itself, the fundamentals and the nitty-gritty of societal development, is wholly embedded in the human capital. Though time intensive, there is no true development without the influence of human capacity. Thus the rush in infrastructural development embarked upon by the Nigerian government through foreign companies can, critically speaking, only be referred to as mere quasi-development scheme which has no bearing on human capital development.

According to Emmanuel Tobiloba, an educational consultant in Lagos, China’s rise to being world power is no accident. To truly embark on the route to development in Nigeria, we must learn from China the basic rules of development. China is the largest supplier of educated workers in the world with more than five million college graduates annually. Over two million of them are from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

China has also increased capacity for scientific research, reaching a 12% spending of world’s total, second only to the United States, in 2013. Obviously, the Chinese achieved this lofty height in their socio-economy life through investment in human resources.

For a sustainable development to gain a foothold in Nigeria, therefore, Tobiloba believes institutions at various strata of the society must be taken seriously by the government. Youths, like Kingsley, must be given opportunities at institutions of higher learning. Otherwise, all the bridges and other facilities swelling all around us will keep having the majority of Nigerians living and sleeping under and around them in the nearest future.

Dare Dan is a freelance writer and a spoken-word poet. He is a member of the Lagos Film Society and writes for Lagos Film Review. His nonfiction writings have appeared on Asiri magazine, olisa.tv, African in Words and musicinafrica.net. His fiction writings have appeared in Brittle Paper and Dwartonline Literary magazine. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.

Globalisation is often defined as trade relations, as political power game, or as a cultural relationship primarily between the West and the Global South. In most cases, this is the result of colonial and imperial history and conditions, as well as the accompanying dominance of the Northern half of the globe over the Southern half. However, these circumstances are changing as the formerly colonised “developing nation” China is not only massively exploiting resources on the entire African continent, but also simultaneously investing in it.

National governments, business people, as well as individuals recognise alternatives to the sole fixation on the West: they can choose between different loan providers and weigh respective conditions; they receive products and services, which were not previously available; and they can also journey out into the world beyond “Fortress Europe” or a walled-in USA. Comparatively open visa politics, high profit margins, countless gaps in market coverage, as well as a growing network of affordable airlines, accommodation as well as services have – until recently – offered African “suitcase traders” good market entry conditions into China. Traders collect small amounts of capital, fly to Guangzhou, buy mobile phones to the amount of the 32 kilogram free baggage allowance, import these to domestic markets and make so much profit that on one of the next trips, they can load a container with additional cargo or build up a network of middlemen.

While the global class of the “bourgeoisie has, through its exploitation of the world market, given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country”, as Marx/Engels stated in 1848 in the Communist Manifesto, now it is not only transnational top managers who are moving along the economical axes of globalisation, but also small independently operating retailers, medium-sized producers, adventurers or (circular) migrants. And they are accompanied by new manifestations of “world knowledge” (Walter Mignolo). So when a Kenyan trader realises in Hong Kong, that the “traders are bringing the world to Africa”, this realisation is not limited only to the import of goods, but also extends to the new impressions and experiences, that travel with them.

Aside from the flow of goods and finances, there is also an expansive process of the people mobilising. Social scientist Gordon Mathews calls it “globalisation from below”, which “can be defined as the transnational flow of people and goods involving relatively small amount of capital and informal, often semi-legal or illegal transactions (….). This is business without lawyers and copyright, run through skeins of personal connections and wads of cash.” What Mathews describes here is an alternative for people, attempting to earn a living in the “globalisation from below”. It “exists because it solves problems the globalisation from above cannot, in providing employment and sufficient income to acquire goods trumped by the media“.

The project Chinafrika. under construction therefore places special emphasis on the mutual overlapping of Sino-African cultures: the ways in which life perspectives change due to new, international relationships and orientations; the ways in which objects and images of the “other” culture penetrate everyday life; and the ways in urban spaces are transformed by the new presence of people and habits. Are we currently experiencing a globalisation of globalisation?

“Chinafrika” is “under construction”, embedded in a radically neo-liberal market process, and simultaneously in search of a liberating “alter-modernity” (Walter Mignolo) beyond the Western models of modernism, post-modernism or anti-modernism. Chinafrika. under construction contemplates from a two-fold perspective both the massive scale of this geo-strategically planned reorganisation as well as the simultaneously, the finely nuanced capillary network of local and individual courses of action

View of construction site of the Maputo-Katembe bridge from the Katembe shore.

Passenger hoping out of the ferryboat that connects Maputo shore with Katembe shore with view of the Maputo Bay with it’s soon-to-be longest suspension bridge Africas.

One of the many chinese supermarkets in Maputo. Afternoon hang out in the avenue Mao Tse Tung.

Hotel Gloria receptionists at work. Hotel Gloria is part of the Joaquim Chissano Conference Center compound. It is now the biggest hotel in Mozambique with 258 rooms. The construction of the hotel was finished in October 2016 as a result of a partnership between the Mozambican government and the AFECC group (Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group lda), a large scale chinese multi-operational enterprise.

Saleswoman at chinese supermarket Horizon Ivato in Maputo city center.

Construction site of the highway Maputo – Ponta D’ouro by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) based in Peking. CRBC is the third biggest construction company in the world.

Huge compound of a chinese cement factory close to Bela Vista (190 km south of Maputo). After the Maputo-Katembe bridge and highway is finished, it will be only 40km away.

There is a high demand for chinese condoms in the gas station close to the highway construction site and gigantic cement factory.

Jochen Becker and others in Skype conversation with Chuks Chukwuemeka

Jochen Becker: Everyone who makes a question will introduce him or herself, so you know who is speaking at the time. So first of all thank you that you could make it. It is really a tragedy that you couldn’t be here. We put your letter on display, we talked to the festival maker, she regrets it deeply and it is really shameful that you could not come. On the other side it might be a topic we should really discuss, which is the topic of Chinafrika. And why people go to China and maybe why they can’t go to Europe if they want. That could be part of our discussion. So just to introduce, we met Chuks in Alaba market. This is a big, huge market at the edge of the metropolitan region of Lagos. It is a market where 95% of the goods are Chinese and 95% of the traders are non Chinese, are Nigerians, so like you. And we met you, we came into your stall, we made a short interview. It was a wonderful meeting and we exchanged email addresses and after a while we thought about, it would be great if we could hear directly from someone who is doing the Chinese business to hear directly about it. And not talking about people but having them with us. So this we are trying now by Skype. So Chuks was sending me this night his presentation or his advises for traders. So its very practical. Also very practical discussion. How to do business. But maybe you could introduce yourself shortly. Who you are, and how you came to where you are now?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Thank you very much. Good afternoon everybody, yeah I am very grateful to have this interactive session with you. As you heard, my name is Chuks Innocent Chukwuemeka, I am from Africa, Nigeria. When you come to Nigeria there is a tribe called the Igbo, Igbo tribe, yeah that’s where I come from. And you heard, I met them, they came to my office and we had some little time of discussions and we discussed about the conference and China/Africa relationship. It is unfortunate that I wouldn’t be at the conference but as it may be I am partly with you there because my mind my heart everything is in the conference. I think also I have send some emails since yesterday night to the organisers so that from now we can discuss things that pertain to Africa-China-relationship, what we are going to trade, step by step guide in this. And also some informal discussions like we call it the kitchen discussion about our interaction with China. I would want us to have an interactive session. You ask me questions on any area you want to discuss with me, I will answer you, I will also ask you questions, at the end of our interactive session I am going to do a presentation, and that presentation will be focusing on the way China sees Africa. If Europe or America is not seeing Africa like that. And if every other continent sees Africa the way China sees Africa you will see that there will be a gain in Africa. In this decade that we have now you will see that it is China that is getting Africa. Everybody knows China is getting Africa, so that is why I want us to have an interactive session. Thanks.

Jochen Becker: It would be interesting to know how you made it from let say the time of your youth to let’s say being a trader. So could you just tell us in quick positions how you became a trader?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: In Alaba market, we have entrepreneurs, people that came from the lowest state of life, they go into apprenticeship without any formal training from any institution. So we have what is called localised institution. This localised institution, maybe you have a cousin or you have a brother, he comes and takes you and you begin to serve him as an apprentice. Maybe you serve for five years, six years, seven years, and after you have gone through the tutelage of apprenticeship he gives you little money and sends you into the fields to begin to till the ground, to have your own harvest, that’s how we all started. So I started very young, when I was about 15 years. I started by coming into my uncle and for my uncle I began to serve him as a small boy. I served him and after serving for so many years, and then he felt now I have gone through some training. And with these trainings I can now start on my own, and he gave me little money. Because you know every training you have gone through in life has prepared you to become great. There is no training that you have gone through in your life that will not add to make you boom. But one thing that is primary about it is this, as somebody who has gone through apprenticeship, you must be focused. So I was focused. And in being focused I began to trade, I began to build. And it took so many years before we now come to the level we are now. And each level we’ve reached, we aim for another level and that is the spirit we have. If you come to Alaba market about 95% of people there went through these apprenticeships. Now they can grow thousands of dollars and millions of dollars. Because they went through tutelage and formal training. That’s how I became a trader. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: Thanks a lot. Maybe you can describe what you are doing. I mean in a professional life not in your private life maybe you can come later on to that. But maybe as a trader, what exactly, how would you describe your ways of working?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: All right. As a trader, right now I am speaking to you I am not in Nigeria. Right now I am speaking to you I am in Benin Republic. Yes, Benin Republic is a neighbouring country to Nigeria. Now what I do, I am into telecommunications. I am into sales and installations. Our telecommunications aspects is what we call private automated box exchange. That is what we use in offices like intercoms. Not only that we also have security gadgets like CCTV, in circuit televisions. We also have all round telecommunications, installations, fire alarms, burglaries. We also have in the installations aspect of it to ministries, governments, hotels, designs. That is the technical aspect of it. In the sales aspect of it I have a distributorship with Panasonic Electronics Company. I also have a distributorship with Uniden, Euditang personal product, based in Hong Kong and also have partners in China whom I import goods from. So we sell and we install. When there are those sales, we handle installation, and when we handle installations, we also do maintenance in the installations. So we have got three things we do, we handle sales, we represent companies, we handle installations, we design offices, and we handle consultancy. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: That’s a broad spectrum. So I think as we now have a Chinafrika conference we might focus on the relation to Hong Kong and maybe China. Maybe you can give us an example of how you manage or how you resource, with whom you collaborate on the other side of the world so to say, in China in Hong Kong?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Okay let me start with my Hong Kong experience. I call it my Hong Kong experience because you know every businessman you must try to diversify, if you must rise up because at times the economy may struggle and so long as you don’t have a stable economy you must also have a diversified ideas and those ideas must be compacted into one thing, profit. So  businessman must sit down at times, reason on ways to diversify. With that one mindset, that my diversification I must be very sincere, I must not go into dubious things. I must be a businessman. There is no evil who can be a businessman. A businessman is there to make profit in a good way, serve your product and that is it. So a time came, I was dealing on Panasonic products, Panasonic is not manufactured from China, Panasonic has their parent company in Japan, from Japan they moved to Malaysia, from Malaysia to Singapore, to Vietnam, that’s the present where they site their plant. And from Vietnam they distribute to Asia, to Africa and UAE. Those are the branches of their distribution. Now a time came that I discovered that Panasonic products are very costly, you want to bring in a 20 feet container you must have about 300 000 dollars. And if you don’t have support from banks like me since I begin business I have no support from banks. What I generate I put back into the business to grow my business and my business is growing. So I now think that its time that I look for products that are affordable and products that I can market. I want to build a brand. Panasonic is already a built brand. You can’t build a brand with Panasonic. It is already a finished brand. Now I want to build a brand. I want to register a brand. I want a brand that I can say this is my brand. Then I began to source that brand from China, Hong Kong. Then within a short time, I got into trust with China, I got into trust with Hong Kong. I went through online. I went through Alibaba I began to navigate free market research of companies and I ran into one company called Hopsfords Industries based in Hong Kong. Then I checked their products it fits in with the idea of what I want. Then from there I began to talk with them and discuss with them, and in the process of discussing with them I opened up business with them. But I took time to check the company credibility, to see if I am dealing with the correct company, to see if I am not dealing with a company on the internet without a base. So after several company checks I discovered that I am dealing with the correct company and that is how since I have been dealing with that company I have done a lot with them and that is the story. Chinese products I also went into China to source the products in China. Anyway let me leave it so you can ask me so that not before I will answer questions you did not ask me.

Jochen Becker: So let me continue with the online. So you didn’t go to Hong Kong you ordered it online. We had a discussion on the question of trust and you already spoke about it, you checked the business. So I wonder how this works, here was once the opinion that people go directly to the markets to really secure by looking at it. You used the tool of internet and you checked the credibility and the trust question by the Internet. Could you be, could you elaborate on that. How do you do it? That this is a trustable company that you don’t have to see it yourself.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: If you check my, text, my note to you when I am talking about the kinds of entrepreneurship, the last paragraph of that note I discussed a little about the steps if you want a good online business. The business world is already a Global village. Internet have made business to come close to our bedroom. You can be in your bedroom and talk to the whole world. To do online business it has two facets of it; the first one is that you must get a credible site. There are so many sites that are on the internet, that you must get a credible site. There are some sites that don’t register anyone in their sites if they don’t check your credibility.  So the credibility of the company, is also, must also be valued with the site that, that company is recognised. Like there is a site called Ali Baba, if you go to the site, you have some companies that have the tag goods supplier, goods supplier means that this company has been proved. But that is not enough. That is not enough. When I started to navigate for companies, I saw so many companies and I did my own background check. First of all you have to go to the website of the company. You have to check though what the company has been doing for years. You have to know and see how many things the company has been able to supply, you have to know the individuals that are involved in the running of the company. You have to know the factories. These things you must check by yourself. And all these checks and balancing must be without any commitment of funds. So I took almost about three weeks to study and to check the companies. And I also had interactions with some companies in Dubai where I buy goods from. Where I travelled several times indirectly I have to ask about the company. I also went to Hong Kong, Yellow Pages I was able to track down the company. But I also had a problem you know. After I contacted the company and we began to talk, when its time to pay money, I discovered that I was hijacked, people infiltrated into my mail and the account that the company sent to me, about one figure was changed in between with another name. So the company name was not the name in the account. So the name they gave me in the account I took that name and I went to search for that company because in every country there is a directory, this directory page. A company can be represented while fraudsters will take advantage of the influence of that company. To fraudster the company in order to get people. And I was able to try that the people that wanted to come in between me and that company that they are fraudsters. Not only that I also checked with my own bank. To check the financial status of the company that I want to deal with before I made initial commitment of about 15 000 dollars. That was three years ago or four years ago. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: So that means, because my question would be everyone could approach the Internet more or less, everyone could go to the Ali Baba site. So your work your commitment in your specific profession is to in a way filter out the good and the bad chances so you look on what is trustable and what is not. And that is a major work as far as I am concerned. That is, it took you three weeks to check out and this is a knowledge to have you ahead of normal, ordinary people could do the same in theory, but in practice it is really that you filtering that out „whose trustable or not” That is how you can give the customers a good product.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes, yes, yes, definitely it is and you see not only because it is my field, anybody can also do online business. You must be very very watchful, to know that you are dealing with the correct person. Very very watchful to know that you are dealing with the correct person. It is not only based on what you see on the internet, there is also need for you to do physical checks, with phone calls, and to also do some under ground background check with the financial institution that the company tells you that they are dealing with. So there are so many thing that we check when we are going about internet business. Because internet business is also good, its very good. Internet business is very good. So that is it.

Jochen Becker: So I would open the floor and maybe there are immediate questions I haven’t had a lot, but maybe there are direct questions to the way he is doing business?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes I’m here, I’m here.

Jochen Becker: They are all shy.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Tell them not to be shy. Me I am not shy.

Jochen Becker: No no not you they. You are not they.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes tell them. They shouldn’t be shy. What we are having now is an Interactive session. We are sharing ideas together. Thank you.

Michael Macgarry: Have you ever had a bad experience? Where you have lost money or there has been fraud in any case

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Not really. Not really. I have not had a bad experience. You know everything in life. Before you write a sentence, after you’ve written the first one, you also have to cross check the content, cross check again, cross check again, cross check again. When you look through one thing, you look into it about three times. You may not fall victim to it. I think it has been a journey. I have not had a bad experience. Expect for the experience that I had, when I wanted to make a commitment to a business and the account number, account details sent to me they just removed single digit, one single digit from the number. The bad experience that I have had, is that I wanted to make a payment and I discovered that the account number, they removed a number and put another number. If I wasn’t diligent enough I would not have detected it. I was able to detect it. That was the only bad experience I had. So I have not had any bad experience.

Jochen Becker: Okay.  Another question? Maybe Chuks you could describe how, for those who haven’t been there, how would you describe Alaba market, your environment? What’s going on beside you?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Alaba Market is an indigenous International market. Very indigenous. I want to say it is indigenous because it is, oh how do I put it now. It is a structure built by locals into an International platform. Do you get what I mean now? We have a structure, built from local, built by locals, designed by locals and they have nurtured it to International level. So Alaba Market is the, I think is the biggest market settlement of electronics, electronic goods sales in West Africa and Africa in general. Products go from China to Alaba Market, from Alaba market to Africa. You understand. Now at Alaba Market we have so many indigenous companies who also are bringing many International affiliations with so many other companies. You have people that have been able to build their brands, set the quote, set the premiums, and there is one thing many of them are not graduates. About lets say, 50%, 60%, 65% they are not graduates in any secular institution. For them growing through apprenticeship, doing one thing for long. Because if you do one thing one day, one year, three years, five years you become experienced in that thing. So they have been able to grow through the process of what they are doing and today many of the companies have businesses ranging up to 300 million dollars, 400 million dollars, 100 million dollars. So every day in Alaba market you have a turnover of up to 3 million dollars, 4 million dollars, everyday. Because the market can have sections that I tell you, we have electrical village, we call it electrical village. You know how big a village is. There is also electronics village, there is industrial village, then you also have the fancy section where you have interiors, mobile-phones accessories. And not only that, many people in Alaba market, they’ve gone to China, they have got companies in China that manufacture for them with their own private brands, and from Alaba Market they service the West Africa. So Alaba Market is number one electronics market, electrical market, and accessory market, in Lagos, in Nigeria, in Africa. Thank you.

Daniel Kötter: I have a question about Alaba Market because when we visited Alaba market we learnt that a very high amount of the goods are actually Chinese goods being sold there but there is 99% of the traders are Nigerian or more precisely Igbo. So its actually two questions, A: why on Alaba market if it is such a huge market there are no Nigerian goods being sold? And B, why doesn’t the market allow any Chinese traders?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Secondly, let me understand your question first. Why the market is strategized into Chinese importation.

Daniel Kötter: Yes

Chucks Chukwuemeka: Okay, okay. Now there is what is called the metamorphosis of the market. The market was founded in 1978 or 79. Then it began as an electronics market. From between 1980 to 1985 to 1987 to 1989 many Alaba importers travelled to China, and travelled to Singapore, they travelled to Hong Kong, they travelled to China, I mean to Taiwan, they travelled to Malaysia and Japan. Then from between 1993, 94 to year 2000 they shifted to Dubai. But Dubai business, they don’t have a manufacturing plant in Dubai. Dubai traders there brought from other countries and they sell the goods themselves. So now for the past decade, ten years ago there’s the boom, that Alaba market focused its market strategy to China. And, why this metamorphosis of business strategy? Is because 1. every businessman must understand the consumers interest and the trend of events. And once you understand the trend of events in business, you must diversify, you must diversify, you see.  So when it is discovered that in Alaba market the prices of electronics has become very high, consumers are not affording it, they must diversify to China. Why China business is very good is because, every amount you have China welcomes you, you have small money, you have big money China is ready for you, they welcome you. They are ready to give to you. So that is why today in Alaba market Chinese products have grown about 80%, 80% in Alaba market. Ranging to every kind of product you can think of. Please can you remind me the second question? I don’t know if I have said this to you.

Daniel Kötter: Yes the second question is; Why its only Nigerian trades having their stalls and shops in Alaba market and why don’t you allow Chinese traders to sell.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: No no no no no, you know it is only. One minute. I’m back. Let me tell you. Alaba market it is indigenous market; you have about 95% Igbo traders in Alaba market. Because they started the market, but the market is open to everybody but the problem is, that you know it’s not everybody that can endure the rigours of trading. Trading has its own rigours like every business operation has its own rigours. There is a time to be patient; there is a time to nurture the business. When you delay because you didn’t measure, you have to endure it. So it is not everybody that has the stamina to endure, you see, that is why. Another aspect is this, Alaba market is open to everybody but you know like the question why we don’t have Chinese traders, you have Chinese people in the market. For Chinese people coming into the market, they come in areas of affiliation, they affiliate to the locals. They don’t have 100% ownership of the business. They have to have an indigenous person who they can localise with so that they can import and through that indigenous person they can do their business. So if you come to Alaba market now you have about 2% of Chinese sole ownership of some trades. Because no matter if you want to have sole ownership they still want to have some few local indigenous in it. Not at all that they cannot do, but almost every company in Alaba market have collaboration with a Chinese counterpart. They have collaboration. Like I give you an example, there is an indigenous company that handles forwarding and clearing a logistics company, this logistic company they formed the company with a Chinese counterpart. If you import goods now, you know now that there is the franchise, you pay in dollars and also the local company and they trade together. They merge together. They answer it together. They have English name, Chinese name and they have a local name. And how do they cope. When you order goods in China, the Chinese company will handle the goods from China and they will charge you on the freight in dollars, when the goods lands in Nigeria the local people will receive the goods, when they receive the goods, they will now clear the goods for you. And when they clear the goods, you going to pay the Chinese counterpart in dollars here you pay for the clearing charge in Naira our local currency. So this is the collaboration, you have the Chinese, you have the Nigerians. So this collaboration works very well, it is like 50/50, win win. Now it is not at first you pay the money to the Chinese company, you pay the money to the locals and they release the freight charge to the Chinese company. And if there is any issue both the Chinese company and the Nigerian company they collaborate together to solve it. Thank you. So that’s how it goes.

Linessa Dan Lin: Following what you just said. If the cooperation is going so well, then Nigerian traders would not have to go to China, is it true? So can I say that there would be less and less traders going to China?

Chucks Chukwuemeka: Yes, the collaboration between China and Africa and Nigeria is so tight. It is so tight. Are you there with me? Is that your question the collaboration between Nigeria and China in business?

Jochen Becker: Maybe she repeats the question.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes please repeat the question.

Linessa Dan Lin: Following what you just said about the cooperation, between Chinese and Nigerian traders. Can you hear me?

Jochen Becker: Maybe I speak directly. I try. I will maybe come closer to the microphone. So she was asking if as you said the cooperation between China and Nigeria is so smooth does it need the people, the Nigerians to go to China any more? Because we have heard that a lot of Nigerians go to China. Is there any need from your perspective? I hope that was the correct question?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes yes yes yes, the cooperation is very smooth. What makes it to be smooth is that as a businessman in Nigeria, I want profit and a Chinese man he wants profit. You know there is a difference between a trader and a businessman. A trader only thinks, most traders thinks about their profits, a businessman he wants you to get profit, I get profit, we have a collaboration you win I win, so that’s what makes the cooperation to be smooth. If one aspect is winning, is gaining the cooperation will not be smooth. That is one. Secondly is that Nigerians go to China, every business man, you don’t have hundred per cent of what you want when you do online business, there is also times you need to visit physically to a place where you source your goods. Because your physical presence will grant you the opportunity to see new things. Like for instance many Nigerians travel to China, to visit the Chinese Trade Fair. Why do they travel to Chinese Trade Fair, in order to meet with new companies see new things in display, be there during exhibitions. You understand? And there is also time that it is good that as a businessman you must travel to know if there are new brands in markets that you may not directly get from your supplier. There are other suppliers that you can also get from. You understand? So that is one thing that makes it to be smooth. And another thing that makes Nigerians to travel to China is because they feel they have more opportunities when they travel to China. Because you can travel to China and you strike a business partner with somebody based on a new product in the market. So it makes them to be smooth. And they are welcome in China at any day. Thank you.

Stary Mwaba: My name is Stary Mwaba. I am from Zambia. We were playing a match on Saturday we won. I met Nigerian artists who say you have a saying called Chinko-no-dey last.
Chuks Chukwuemeka: You know Chiko is an abbreviation that Nigerians give Chinese. Chiko is an abbreviation of China. So it’s a name you call a China. Yes I understand. Chinko-no-dey last. Okay come with your question because I already have an answer. So finish your question.

Stary Mwaba: I have friends back home who travel to China. And from what I gather is that they have, you are given a choice you know. There are grades for products and businessmen like you opt to choose, you choose the lower but you make so much profit out of it. Not that you can’t make any profit from getting a better quality product. Is that true? Is that why we have to many Chinko-no –dey last?

Chucks Chukwuemeka:(Laughs). You see, I want to make something very clear, like for instance in my office I market two products. I market Panasonic products and I market Uniden products. Uniden products is a brand product I registered with Nigerian trademark. Now every businessman must have a principle, professional, you must have a principle. The life we lead must also have a principle. Every product has a principle, that’s why there is a manual for every product that guides you through every product. So what am I saying in essence? We are, we have a professional, you are professional, you are a photographer, you are a researcher, you have a principle, and your principle is your guiding ethics. I have two answers now. First of all Chinese products, Chinese products has its average life span but it depends on what you want. There is one thing about China, if you go to China, China builds a product for you according to your specification. And one thing I also know is that I don’t really think that many products that are sub standard do pass through the official way in China because there is no country that would want to use sub standard products. Like in Nigeria there is a Standard Organisation of Nigeria. This organisation their duty is to prove the quality of every product that comes into the country. But you know business people, some are very smart, let us agree now that in every society when you study society very well, society is a mix of people with different views, different lifestyles, different orientation, so there is no society that is entirely bad. You have people from different backgrounds and they in total make it into the society. So then what makes one to be who he is, is the principle that you have as a person. So your principle determines who you are, in society. You see that is how it is also in business. Now importation, you have your specification, if you come to China now you must make up your mind the product you want to sell. And the product you want to sell you must make up your mind the brand you want to build. But there is a problem with consumers, you know about, in Nigeria market, about lets say you have, 20/25% of consumers that are ready to pay for the original thing. And most business people, everybody wants to be in business. And especially if you sell products that are not directly purchased by the consumers, products that are purchased by a second person like engineers, like contractors. Contractors they may not likely to go to buy the original thing. Except if you have a strong person that is in between the contract and the contractor who will check the product. When the contractor comes to buy the product he will first of all check his profit. And he will go for sub-standard. You see. So there are many Chinese products, let me give you an example LG products is a household electronics name in Nigeria, its made in China. LG products, they sell televisions, DVDs, washing machines and everything. The product I market now from Hong Kong is built in China and is original and there are several other companies that are also built from China. But the problem we have now is that there is many people from Nigeria they go for sub-standard, they go for the consuming public. The problem is the public, because the public most of the time don’t want to pay. And the businessman does not want to go out of business. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: I don’t know if there is another question.

Stary Mwaba: One last one. Ask him about. When I went to Ghana I noticed that Ghanaians they make, they have Chitenges, we call them Chitenges, the material, African material, they have it manufactured in China but they still have a tag which is written Made in Ghana even when its manufactured in China yes, textiles. What is that? Is that the case in Nigeria as well?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Okay okay, like for instance you have your localised products, manufactured in China from Nigeria.

Stary Mwaba: But the Tag says made in Ghana and yet its manufactured in China.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Produced in China but made in Ghana.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: We have a problem of acceptability in Nigeria. If you go to Aba, Aba is the southern-eastern part of Nigeria, south-eastern part of Nigeria. In Aba you have manufacturing plants, in these manufacturing plants you have shoe factories. Many of these shoe factories are manufactured in, at the state Aba but the source the sole of it, you know the sole of a shoe? The leather they come from China. Now, but we have an acceptability problem in Nigeria. Many Nigerians don’t usually believe in Nigerian products, even if, let me just go into informal; even if you bring up something like an Orange and package it, and arrange it very well and write it Made in China but you produce it in Nigeria somebody will value that it came from abroad. And that is why the country is making efforts so that the country will accept indigenous products from the country. Because if a product is localised it also has to blossom the economy of the country. You see, so right now in Nigeria you have so many products that are assembled in Nigeria but they find it difficult to write Made in Nigeria, they still go ahead to write it Made in China. But there are also many products that are Made in Nigeria. Like we have a plant, automotive, an auto parts plant in Nigeria, and we know it, it is called Innoson. Innoson started producing about five years ago, four years ago. They manufacture vehicles, Made in Nigeria and these vehicles they are selling, they are good, they are competitive. But we must learn to accept what we produce and believe in ourselves, believe in what we do. There are many things that we Africans manufacture, that are better than products that are made in China, because we have the human materials, the human resources, we have the material resources, we have the mineral resources. Because many a time the problem of inferiority complex is our problem, inferiority complex. If inferiority complex got out of our minds we would begin to appreciate our goods. Because if we don’t appreciate what we do another person will not appreciate it. So we must learn how to appreciate our indigenous products, our indigenous individuals and our indigenous personalities. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: Great. Great. Thank you very much Chuks. I think we have to wrap it up here. Because we are already over-time. I would propose that I send all the participant your notes. You were sending me. If that’s okay for you.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Yes. Very, very fooled.

Jochen Becker: So we share, I put it in one file so I can send it to all of us, everyone has it, everyone has your email address and can contact you. And we keep on the discussion however we can manage it. And I thank you very much for your knowledge; I thank you also for your humour, your great humour. And I think it was really interesting to know in all the detail, and the complicated structures and the perspectives you could give us into the discussion. And I am very sure tomorrow we will continue and we will have it in mind. And I will come back to you afterwards and tell you what came out of it. And I will give a short report on that when I am back in Berlin. So thank you very much not to, Lagos, back to Benin.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: Okay my final remark. Most of the things if you go through the notes in any area you need some clarifications, because I am not only a trader, I also do my little research work, and handle conferences and understanding little about the things I do, like as you already hear from Mr. Jochen I collaborate with Chinafrika. Chinafrika is a great team, and it’s a great team work. We have a lot. We are a team now. So let’s get to work. So I thank you Linessa, I thank you oh come on please from Hong Kong, yes yes yes, Michael and the other guy from Zambia, and the sister did not talk, the sister sitting in the middle.

Jochen Becker: There are two sisters.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: No she is looking back. She is the one I am talking to.

Feben Amara: Other one?

Chuks Chukwuemeka: No you you you you. Yes you you.

Jochen Becker: Maybe you just say something.

Feben Amara: Hi

Chuks Chukwuemeka: And the other one by the camera.

Nara Virgens: Hey I am Nara. We were writing emails.

Chuks Chukwuemeka: I want to believe that we will meet in the next Chinafrika Conference we will definitely meet. And if you want to go into business or you have something you want to know, or somebody that needs clarification feel free at any time to communicate with me, communicate with Daniel, with Jochen and I will be ready to give it my little knowledge so that it will be a great team. China/Africa it will be a great Team. Thank you.

Jochen Becker: That was great. See you soon. I will now switch off sorry because we have to leave we have people waiting. Thank you very much. Have a good time. Bye bye.

See full Lecture here.