2010-08-12 15:47

LAGOS - One of China's construction giants had established itself as a top international brand in Nigeria after 30 years of localization efforts, a senior executive told Xinhua Wednesday.

The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Nigeria Limited had employed more than 20,000 local workers in 70 projects, mainly road, bridge and railway projects. Local employment had made a great contribution to the company's rapid development in Africa's most populous country, said Shi Hongbing, its deputy general manager.

Employing the locals not only created jobs in Nigeria but also reduced the labour costs for CCECC, Shi said.

The company regularly sent Nigerian employees with potential to China to receive training so they could catch up with the latest technology in the industry. This enhanced their sense of belonging to CCECC and many of them had risen from assistants to project managers, he said.

S.O. Ojekwe, a former Nigerian Railway Corporation engineer who has been working with CCECC since 2000, supported Shi's evaluation.

"I think CCECC is a good company. I have some colleagues working with CCECC in the railway industry. There are other local staff at CCECC," Ojekwe said.

"Well, to me, the company is so good and they continue to get contracts in Nigeria while competing with other companies," he said.

Danladi Musa, a human resource manager at CCECC, left his job in the Nigerian Education Ministry and joined CCECC in 2007 after studying environment engineering in China for five years.

"They really gave me an opportunity to come out with all I have and put it into practice and move forward, especially on the issue of discipline in terms of time management and meeting targets," Musa said.

"When we were recruiting, Nigerians were a bit skeptical, but as soon as they settled down, we found they are happy and ready to work and most importantly to learn more from the technology, expertise and experience the Chinese bring here," he said.