Special economic zones are springing up across Africa as Chinese manufacturers arrive in search of cheap labour. But outside the zones, life is much tougher.
Listen to Nicholas Norbrook on why Chinese manufacturing is moving to Africa on the China in Africa podcast.
You can’t just walk into the Amigo plant, a heavily fortified factory on Ladipo Oluwole Street. Lined with security cameras and a fence topped with razor wire, it looks more like a maximum-security facility than a manufacturing plant.
Teenagers and younger children start arriving by 5am on foot from the working-class suburbs, all hoping they will make it to the factory floor.By 7.30am, the gates are open. The lucky ones are selected and given an ad hoc ID card. Workers get an hour’s break and work ends at 5pm. They receive N800 daily, just over $5, equivalent to around $0.60 an hour.
The children are full of praise for the Chinese owners. “I have to work here so that I can save to buy my high school certificate form. If not for these Chinese, who will employ me?” asks one young worker called Njideka. “Our big men in Nigeria don’t start factories, they buy plenty, plenty of cars and jeeps. At least these Chinese are trying,” .
“My friend took me to her uncle to see if I can get any job, but the man wants ‘something’ from me before he will give me a job. But even if I give him that ‘thing’, I am not sure I will still get the job, so I walked here to the Chinese factory. It’s tough, but what alternative do I have, unless I stay at home and starve?”
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