Skill Transfer in Sino-Nigerian Rail Transportation Partnership: A Quest for Sustainability of the Rail Sub-Sector in Nigeria

Abstract

The moribund nature of railway system in Nigeria due to lack of indigenous engineering and funding facilitated the renewed interest in Sino-Nigerian partnership largely framed by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC) process, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop Nigeria infrastructure. Consequently, despite the cooperation from China, through Sino-Nigerian partnership, there is uncertainty surrounding the Chinese skills transfer to Nigerian rail workers towards sustainable maintenance of Nigerian railway system. The paper explores the nature and level of skills transfer in Sino-Nigerian rail transportation partnership, and ascertained the employment considerations vis-à-vis skills transfer in the rail transportation partnership. It also examined the challenges and hindrance of skill transfer in Sino-Nigerian rail transportation partnership in Nigeria. Descriptive research design was engaged through qualitative approach. The approach relied on interviews as a form of primary data in sourcing for relevant information from participants. Quota and purposive (with snowball) sampling technique were engaged to select participants for the study. Content analysis was engaged for data analysis. The findings showed that non-technical workers were the major beneficiaries of Sino-Nigerian skill transfer through on-the-job training. Thus, the knowledge transfer was slower than expected and the Nigerian engineers who were supposed to acquire the most important skills in SGR project were not given the opportunity by the Chinese. The study concluded that there is an apt need for Nigeria to develop her own indigenous technology that will be viable for long-term usage of railway sub-sector without relying on external technology.