CHINESE COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE IN CHINATOWN, LAGOS, NIGERIA, 2004-2023

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenal upsurge in the proliferation of Chinese goods in Nigeria with particular emphasis on the debilitating nature of the business activities being carried out in Chinatown, a Chinese specialised goods market located in Lagos, Nigeria’s sprawling economic capital. By adopting the Heckscher-Ohlin theory of international trade and relying on findings from field observations, informal interviews and a variety of academic and non-academic literature on China’s commercial influence in Nigeria, the paper argues that China has been pursuing a systematic policy of de-industrialisation in Nigeria through the instrumentality of the indiscriminate dumping of smuggled and sometimes sub-standard Chinese goods in Chinatown and their distribution throughout the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. The study, therefore, concludes that Nigeria and other African countries need to take explicit steps to counteract the dangers posed to the existing and future capabilities of their industrial sectors by the current wave of Chinese neoliberalism.