From Competitors to Trading Partners

Fifteen years ago, 500 factories hummed with work in Kano, but fewer than 100 remain operational today, most at far less than full capacity, according to the city's Chamber of Commerce. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. Meanwhile, Kano's Kwari textile market, the biggest in West Africa, has swelled with stall after stall of Chinese fabrics and clothing.

Liti Kulkul, former chairman of the textile traders association here, estimated that a decade ago, 80 percent of the fabric sold at Kwari was made in Nigeria, compared with 5 percent now. Asian products, mostly from China, make up the rest.

"We have taken this path of neocolonialism," Kulkul said. "They have virtually crippled all aspects of our economy."

Yet others see China not as the ruin of Kano business but as a transformative force pushing the city back to its roots in trading. Beyond Kulkul's stall, which specialized in the colorful Nigerian prints long produced by local textile mills, the market buzzed with dealmaking.

Rows of shops overflowed with Asian-made air conditioners, televisions and DVD players. Beyond them, Kano's noisy, smoggy streets were jammed from curb to curb with Chinese-made motorcycle taxis that largely have replaced the aging stock of Italian-made Vespas, which cost three times more.

Chinese business "revived the economy," said Ahmed Rabiu, deputy president of the Chamber of Commerce. "Trading improved. Manufacturing went down. That's it."

Not everyone in Kano applauds the change. The motorcycle taxi drivers earn less than factory workers once did. And the growth in trade has not absorbed most of the workers laid off in the past decade. There are more beggars and other visible signs of poverty than ever before, residents say.

"We are very bitter that the factory closed down," said Ibrahim Garba, 50, who worked for the Marshall family's pasta factory for 25 years, earning enough to support his two wives, six children and six grandchildren.

Now, instead of going to the factory, where he operated a generator, he farms five dusty acres of corn, beans and millet, most of which he uses to feed his family, not to earn money. His income has plunged from about $50 to about $15 a month, Garba said.

But Marshall, with the education, capital and savvy to adjust to Kano's shifting business climate, is not complaining.

He met with Chinese businessmen in Singapore and quickly spent the $5,000 he brought and $15,000 more he had kept in reserve in Nigeria. In return, he got four used Honda cars and 1 1/2 shipping containers full of car parts. Used automotive products here are known as "Belgium" for the traditional source of many of them, but now most Belgium comes from Asia.

Marshall calculates that he can sell the cars and auto parts for $34,000, a profit of 70 percent on his investment.

"I'm going back next month, inshallah!" Marshall said, using a common phrase in the Muslim world that means "God willing." "More opportunity is coming."