Guo Chen, 46, is a Chinese investor in Kenya’s manufacturing industry, which represents 41 percent of the country’s GDP. Guo has worked in the country for the last nine years, selling trucks made by China’s Beiqi Foton Motor Co. The company has already made and sold more than 10,000 units since 2010 in the Kenyan market. The trucks are assembled in Kenya by Foton. She is among several Chinese who work in the growing manufacturing sector in the country.

“Foton also exports the completed cars to other parts of the region such as Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The demand for Chinese products continues to increase in Africa, rapidly forcing other companies from the West to close shop,” said Guo.

The World Bank estimates that by the end of this year Africa’s economic growth is targeted at 5.2 percent. The bank estimates that there is a growing investment by China in the manufacturing sector. Kenya’s current Industrialization Secretary, Wilson Songa, said that there is a growing culture in Africa that Chinese products are superior to what comes from the West.

“With over 32 Chinese manufacturing companies in Sub Saharan Africa last year, showing their presence, there are a lot of expectations from consumers. For instance, China-based Techno Mobile Phone Co. already has a factory in Nairobi. The mobile phone manufacturing company has already marketed its products very well in Kenya, forcing Nokia to relocate its offices from Nairobi to South Africa as a result of increased competition in the smart phone sector,” Songa told ChinAfrica.

French car maker Peugeot is among one of the companies that have shut down assembly plants in Kenya as Chinese car makers such as Foton continue to make inroads in the Kenyan market. “Major Chinese manufacturing products that are made and exported to other countries around the world include cars, electronics, textiles, shoes, processed foods, medical and paper products. Some of the leading manufacturing African countries with heavy Chinese presence include South Africa, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and Burundi,” said Songa.

Kenya, according to the World Bank, is Africa’s ninth largest economy in terms of GDP, estimated at $41.3 billion. China has already pledged to invest more than $6 billion in just six years. The country’s economy has been growing by more than 5 percent per annum since 2007. But the World Bank estimates that 19 countries in Africa are among the top 30 fastest growing economies in the world, among these are Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya.

“Increase in Chinese products and their popularity, particularly mobile phones, says it all. In Kenya, most mobile phone owners, at-least 60 percent, have a Chinese made phone. Those figures communicate a lot to the consumer culture in this country,” Germano Mwabu, an Economics professor from the University of Nairobi, told ChinAfrica.

Mwabu said as a result, land rates in urban areas such as Nairobi have increased, as the numbers of factories continue to be opened. “Yes, figures are evident. As demand for urban land continues to increase, the prices of purchasing land in Nairobi’s industrial areas have gone up by as much as 50 percent. For instance, last year half an acre of land in the prime industrial estates went for about $12 million, now the same piece of land in the same location goes for about $24 million,” said Mwabu.

He said that there is a growing culture on the continent for the respect of Chinese people. “Many Africans have come to love the Chinese; they have built world class roads and bridges around the continent. Many argue that the West has not helped Africa as much over many centuries, compared with the Chinese presence of just a few decades,” Mwabu stated. There is also an increase in Chinese textile companies in the country. The companies are now exporting clothes to as far as America and Europe, according to Kenyan government records.

“I do not like products from the West as I now prefer the Chinese ones. My mobile phone for instance is an HTC sensation. It has good features that you would not find in a Nokia or an Alcatel phone,” said Lucy Makumi, a shoe vendor from Nairobi. CA

(Reporting from Kenya)