Made in China, Good or Bad for Africa?

There are a lot of talks over the flooding of Made-in-China goods in African markets. The center of the debate, is the goods are meant to benefit the Africans or take away local industrial jobs?

This afternoon I met a young walking sales men in his 20-30s, in the beach road close the three-story art gallery. When I fist saw Kobena Kofi, he was just emerged from a beach front shacks and basically constructed huts. When I met him again later, he was sitting on a roadside wood bench counting the day's worthy of sales. From our conversation, Kobena bought a large box of Chinese herbal essential oil from a wholesaler, he then walk door to door selling the small box of the oil. Acquired for 4 cedis ($2.5) for 24 boxes, the oil is sold for 0.5 cedi ($0.35) per box. It sounded like a good business model.

Except for a shortage of good brand name of the Made-in-China oil, which was sold fast and finished by now. Currently, Kobena only has another "generic" oil and it had been selling slow, he said. For men who usually don't buy the oil, Kobena has something else to offer, plastic one-time-use shaver. I suspected that people won't throw them away after the first use.

Kobena also told me that he has a certain route to run, depending on each date of the week. Tomorrow, he will be Tema, and then Teshi the next day, etc. Although proud of what he is doing to make a living, Kobena is also modest young man, when asked about today's sales, "small, small", he said.

After we shake hands and snap fingers, Kobena reminded me of his name again with a assertive tone, "My name is Kobena Kofi", and then he walked into the setting sun. I, however,didn't stop thinking, young entrepreneurial Ghanaian like Kobena is making a living from selling the "Made-in-China" products, and he is offering something to meet the demand at locally affordable price. There must have hundreds of Kobenas around Accra at any given time of the day. It's hard to blame them or the products for the problems in Africa.

Do you see a Kobena around you? What would you say? Please leave your comments