“Flying Geese” or False Promises: Assessing the Viability of Foreign Direct Investment -Driven Industrialization in Nigeria’s Shoe Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

The flying geese theory (FGT) describes the sequential order of the industrialization catch-up process. When foreign direct investment from economically advanced countries enters a lesser developed economy, the underdeveloped host country has the opportunity to engage in a regional pattern of knowledge and technology transfer with foreign multinationals. This enables the creation and integration of private businesses into the global industrial value chain. Business analysts and economists alike applied this paradigm to Nigeria and identified Chinese industrialists as leading geese. Based on semi-structured interviews in Nigeria this paper investigates what the FGT paradigm looks like within the shoe manufacturing sector by studying Chinese direct investment in Lagos and Chinese partnership on technical vocational education training (TVET) in Aba. Ethnographic surveys support reason to believe that Nigerian shoemakers, rather than Chinese industrialists, are passing on knowledge and skills required to enter into the shoe manufacturing sector. More especially, the skills passed on is an artisanal ability to craft a shoe by hand through master-apprentice relationships. Though these on-ground realities undermine the promises of structural transformation associated with Chinese investment, they expose the need of the host government to refashion a more inclusive industrialization strategy that harnesses the expertise of indigenous artisans and engages foreign investment more thoughtfully.