As consumers continue to grumble over the quality of Chinese products in the Nigerian markets, the Chinese Government has explained why this trend has continued unabated.
The Deputy Director General of the Department of Western Asian and African Affairs, Cao Jiachang, attributes the problem to the African buyers, who in an attempt to make more gain connive with some Chinese manufacturers to produce sub-standard commodities at very cheap rates.
Jiachang who disclosed this in Beijing in a chat with Journalists from Africa, said while American purchasers insist on quality as against huge profits, their Nigerian and other African trading partners were more interested in more gains than the quality of the products. This trend is a big problem to the Chinese government.
Jiachang noted that the problem was not only peculiar to Africa alone, as similar problems were experienced in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the past. “In the case of Saudi Arabia, we discovered that some low quality products found their way into the Saudi Arabian market.”
To address the problem the Deputy Director General said that the Department of the Ministry of Industry had to carry out an investigation by paying a visit to Saudi Arabia, and to their astonishment, they were shocked to discover that, a certain manufacturer was producing different lines of products.
“The first line for the American market, the second line for the Middle East market and the third line for the African and Latin American markets. We were shocked to hear such a clear description.”
Jiachang also blamed both the Nigerian and Chinese Governments for lack of supervision and quality control which make most of these manufacturers escape Customs supervision.
Another reason for this unfortunate development Jiachang said,? is a situation where some products are manufactured outside China illegally and labeled ‘made in China’. “We have taken the statistics and have realised that there are other factories run by Chinese businessmen and their partners in Africa.”