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 When Mo Haipeng set out to make his fortune in Africa, he staked everything
on a pair of plastic sandals. Judging by the frenetic activity at his shoe shop
in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, he made a wise choice.
Women traders rifle with manic abandon through boxes of China-made footwear
before sauntering outside to sell their prizes in the city’s chaotic streets.
Presiding over the frenzy, Mr Haipeng haggles by holding up fingers to make up
for his almost total lack of English, pausing only to light his latest
cigarette.
While spending six days a week flogging slippers in the sweltering din of
Freetown’s Regent Road may not be everybody’s idea of heaven, Mr Haipeng, 40,
says it certainly beats his old job in a bean curd factory in Shanghai. “I
didn’t go to college, I didn’t go to high school, I used to work for other
people,” he says, as his wife bustles around with armfuls of yet more shoes.
“Now I’m the boss.”
Mr Haipeng could be speaking for thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have
abandoned the crushing competition in China’s big cities to carve niches in
Africa’s untapped markets. But while many have tried their luck in more advanced
economies in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria or Ghana, Mr Haipeng’s venture
into Sierra Leone shows the new arrivals are succeeding even in the toughest
conditions.
Emerging from a decade of civil war that ended in 2002, Sierra Leone ranks on
United Nations indicators as the world’s second-poorest country, plagued by
power shortages, unemployment and a risk of unrest that would be enough to send
most retailers packing. But, armed with containers of extremely cheap footwear
churned out by China’s factories, Mr Haipeng has turned the poverty to his
advantage. He sells brand new products to hawkers who used to rely on imports of
second-hand shoes from the US – known locally as “junk” – winning friends into
the bargain. “The Chinese have helped me to build up my business,” says Ibrahim
Bashiru, a young hawker who came in to replenish his stock. “I give thanks and
praise to God for that.”
Sierra Leone’s Chinese community, which once consisted largely of workers
sent to labour on aid projects such as a sports stadium and government offices
in the 1980s, dwindled to almost nothing during the war. But their numbers have
since recovered to perhaps 400 to 500 people, many of whom work for Chinese
state companies that have taken over hotels, a sugar plantation, and are
repairing a hydroelectric dam. The Henan Guoji Industry and Development
Corporation has set up a factory at an old railway yard in Freetown to make
foam, tiles and paints. Slogans such as “Punctuality is the soul of business”
and “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel” adorn the walls in foot-high letters,
creating a more austere atmosphere than Mr Haipeng’s boutique. While individual
entrepreneurs are still a minority in Freetown, their numbers are growing.
Several other Chinese shoe shops have opened up since Mr Haipeng took over Shun
Da shoes in 2004, while restaurants and hotels are expanding.
But business has not always been easy. Mr Haipeng’s first consignment from
China was the wrong size for the average Sierra Leonean foot, and no one liked
the designs.
“This year I know much more about the market, and I know which kind of shoes
the local people like.” However, unlike Lebanese traders who have settled in
Sierra Leone for generations, Mr Haipeng does not plan to stick around. “I don’t
like it here, but I want to make money,” he says. “I’ll do business for maybe
five or 10 years, then I’ll go back to China.”
FT.com
/ Reports - Chinese in Africa: New arrivals thrive, even in the toughest
conditions
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