Beijing a boon to Africa? I beg to differ Dambisa Moyo.

Although Dambisa Moyo's analysis of Chinese economic penetration in Africa provides a quite positive view on the impact of China in Africa , I beg to differ on the positivity of the job-creation impact of China in Africa. 

For the past 2 weeks I've been gaining great insight and work experience working with my father’s civil engineering /construction company (CACOCO-BTP) in Cameroon. These past weeks I have spent on the field and in the company’s archives, have made me realize how much local construction companies are a great source of job-creation for hundreds of Cameroonians. 

The current construction site of CACOCO-BTP directly employs close to 400 people, and indirectly (e.g. the carpenters, tile-makers, painters - for the next stage of the construction site) about 600 people; this, for a period of 2 years. Think about the positive economic impact this construction-site has on multiple families across the nation! Many of the construction-site workers, who could have been unemployed for 2 years, now earn a secure source of income, for at least 6 months (depending on the period of  time their services are needed on the construction site).

Another advantage, I realized, local construction  companies bring to the job-creation sector of the economy is the training of (both qualified and unqualified) workers. 

A construction site, like the Camp-SIC Tsinga CACOCO-BTP is currently building does not need 100% qualified labor. Out of the 400 people working on the site, only 10% are permanent qualified staff (chef d'équipe – team leaders), 30% are temporary-qualified staff ( ouvriers qualifiés – qualified laborers) and the remaining 60% are unqualified (manoeuvres - laborers).  

Construction site - 5 R+5 city appartment buildings. 

The “manoeuvre” after 6 months (performing tasks such as turning sand-and-gravel, carrying wood & irons bars, making bricks) can become ouvrier (doing more qualified tasks like building the walls, making the floors, et al). Just like that, workers who may have had no construction skills prior to the construction-project, upgrade their skills as they receive hands-on training, and end their job-experience with a higher skill-set. This is important because on a subsequent construction site, instead of starting as a “laborer”  the worker will start as a  qualified laborer. It makes a significant difference not only for skill-building in a nation with a deficit in vocational/practical training, but it also makes a substantial difference for personal-revenue-gain, in a nation with a 10+ % rate of unemployment.

On a construction-site in Cameroon, a laborer (manoeuvre) earns about $6/day (this may sound insignificant compared to U.S. or developed countries standards, but also compare it to the World Bank’s statistics that the average African lives under $2/day, and that the middle-class person in Africa is ranked as earning $2/day to $20/day; with that in mind, you understand that $6/day gives workers a higher-than-average standard of living). Moreover, the qualified temporary laborer (ouvrier qualifié) earns about $12 a day, and the qualified permanent staff (chef d'equipe) earns about $16 a day.

Now imagine, when our country offers infrastructure-works to Chinese companies (who often than not, I would argue with Dambisa Moyo on this point, import most of their workers from China, to work on construction sites in Cameroon), imagine the subtractive (not to say negative) impact it has on potential local job-owners and on the latter’s households. That’s why when I read Dambisa Moyo’s tone when she states: “And the charge that Chinese companies prefer to ship Chinese employees (and even prisoners) to work in Africa rather than hire local African workers flies in the face of employment data. In countries like my own, Zambia, the ratio of African to Chinese workers has exceeded 13:1 recently...”   I can’t help think of my particular example in Cameroon, which I won’t use as a generality, but which I hope, sheds light on another face of the China-Africa socio-economic-relations’ cube.

Palais-des-sports built 100% by Chinese

Taking my modest observations of Chinese-companies in Cameroon’s infrastructure sector, I must say, 2 of the most known buildings constructed by Chinese companies (Palais des Sports and currently,  “l’Immeuble de la mort”) were and are, entirely built by Chinese workers. Some people might claim that, because it’s a “gift” of the Chinese government to Cameroon, they had to do it all themselves, and deliver the gift fully packed to Cameroon; but, I don’t think it justifies employing 90+ % Chinese labor. 

Japanese offer schools to Cameroon, built by local companies. 

Compare with the Japanese government, for instance, they have been offering school - "gifts" (donations of schools) to Cameroon since 1998, and each school built has been done by a local company (CACOCO-BTP built 40 of these Japanese schools, in 3 main regions of Cameroon).  

"L'Immeuble de la Mort" rennovated by Chinese-company

Other people may claim, arguably so, that Chinese workers do the job faster and cheaper; but, at what human-socio-economic costs?  500 Cameroonians could have been directly employed to build Palais des Sport (and in the process upgrade their skills and standard-of-living), 800 Cameroonians could be currently working on the renovation of “Immeuble de la Mort”  ( article in French ) and in the process generate an additional source of income for themselves and their families.  What is the point of building all these infrastructures anyways?! if the people of the country, are not prioritised as the benefiters of the  infrastructures' realizations? What’s the point of hastily building in 1-year (with 90+ % of Chinese laborers) what could be built perhaps in 2-years (or less), with hundreds of local-jobs created, and many more households economically empowered?!

I can’t help being a tiny bit revolted  at the local-job-creation potential, being wasted with Grand-Chinese-Infrastructure-Realizations.  This problem is more pertinent now, with the finalization, yesterday – Thursday  June 28th, of China’s (through its Ex-Im bank) 451 million dollars loan to Cameroon, to build 135 miles of road between Douala (the economic city) and Yaoundé (the capital).  Following this loan, the government has opened bids for Chinese companies, to come do the road construction work ( the Chinese government might as well bluntly say : "hey Cameroon, we lend you money, so that you may employ our people to do your infrastructure & development work" <--- does this insult some one else's common-sense? ). That, to me, trivializes all the local road-construction companies, who have proven themselves, literally on the ground, and who would recruit hundreds more local staff than Chinese-companies.   

I am not arguing for-or-against Chinese economic partnership in Africa. At this point, we are bound to trade, exchange, and do business together. As Dambisa Moyo rightfully says, “Despite all the scaremongering, China’s motives for investing in Africa are actually quite pure. To satisfy China’s population and prevent a crisis of legitimacy for their rule, leaders in Beijing need to keep economic growth rates high and continue to bring hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. And to do so, China needs arable land, oil and minerals. Pursuing imperial or colonial ambitions with masses of impoverished people at home would be wholly irrational and out of sync with China’s current strategic thinking.”

My point here is just to raise awareness on the impact our (Cameroon’s) decisions, to accept Chinese-companies in key job-creation sectors – such as infrastructure, has on our socio-economy. I am making no generalization about Africa, simply providing a different view, not based on anecdotes I have heard, but based on hands-on observations and concrete experience on the ground in Cameroon.   

So, is Beijing really a boon to Africa? I can’t affirm it as confidently as Dambisa Moyo. I would rather say, it is a tough-reality we (Africans) must adjust to, analyze critically, and mold to benefit our people within our socio-economic sphere.