Nnamdi Awa-Kalu in Ventures Africa:
More hereIf necessity is the mother of invention, why aren’t we creating much?
Aba Shoemakers, image via New Telegraph
There is a deafening buzz once you get into the town centre in Aba, most of it coming from the swarming ‘ina-aga’, the motorcycles which take Aba residents and visitors back and forth at a fraction of the cost of taxis. The rest of the buzz is the sound of the busy, the overwhelming music of enterprise which animates a city that was central to once favourable comparison between Nigeria’s South East and Japan, the beacon of technological progress in the Orient. Today, Aba is a symbol of the industrial underdevelopment which has slowed innovation in the non-oil sector of Nigeria. Where the city was famous for its strength in manufacturing, all that is left is the traders’ reputation for imitation. The term ‘Aba-made’ is a byword for fake or copied goods, which are low in quality and deemed inferior by the discerning buyer.
