Aba Shoemakers Jittery Over Chinese Shoe Magnete’s Investment In Aba
SHOEMAKERS in Ariaria market have expressed worry over the state government’s plan to bring a foreign investor who would produce shoes in Aba to compete with local shoe-makers. Some shoemakers who spoke with Vanguard in Aba yesterday in separate interviews said that the arrangement would strip them of their little income and make them jobless. Ikedi Ohaeto, said that the government may benefit from the taxes the investor would pay but noted that the investor would in turn take the made-in-Aba shoe market away from them. He said ,”It is not fit for Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who is championing made-in-Aba products to shop for an investor from abroad who would be a huge beneficiary of his effort which is supposed to support local and indigenous production.If the Chinese arrives with his machines and coupled with cheap man-power from Nigeria, how can we compete with him producing with no machines but bare hands? “I am not too sure that Aba shoe-making industry will