Perspectives On Nigerias Economic Development Volume I

In the chapters of this book which was first published in 1999, an attempt has been made to examine several aspects of the Nigerian banking and financial systems, capital market, economic development planning, budget and fiscal policy as well as the role of private sector in development. 32 chapters are included in seven parts which are entitled: The Way Forward; Planning and Economic Development; The Private Sector in Development; Issues on Budget and Fiscal Policy; The Nigerian Financial System; The Nigerian Banking System; and The Nigerian Capital Market.

The main aim of this chapter is to review the different perspectives of the structural transformation of the Nigeria economy as well as the effects of the various development policies on the economy. The structure of an economy is the institutional as well as organizational framework which determines how resources are owned, allocated and distributed in an economy. The alteration in the structure of the Nigerian economy in the desired direction should ensure the achievement of economic growth and development. The objectives and goals of Nigerian economic development are also highlighted to see how far the country has fared in her effort to achieve sustainable development and improvement of the welfare of the people.

Nigeria has experienced significant economic progress since publication in 1999 of the first edition of Perspectives on Nigerian Economic Development. Two main drivers of this progress have been the beneficial return to democratic rule and the implementation of key economic reforms, particularly in pursuing external debt relief, implementing excess crude account to stabilize revenue volatility, introducing contributory pension schemes and taking steps to privatize key sectors such as telecommunications. This volume is focused on issues relating to good political and corporate governance and national development; budget and fiscal policy; the Nigerian financial and capital markets and banking. Part one deals with the issues of globalisation and how Nigeria can play in the emergent environment. Part two (Managing the Nigerian Economy), Part three (Strengthening the Nigerian Banking Sector and Part Four (Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance) proffers ways and means of handling these intertwined aspects of national challenges. The final part - Key Sector Issues deals with three vital areas - Education, Transportation, and Oil and Gas.

This book constitutes a critical review of Nigeria’s attempts to achieve rapid industrial development since independence from Britain in 1960. It details the issues, challenges, and hard choices confronted by Nigerian political leadership and highlights the reasons why the country ultimately failed to achieve industrial take-off in spite of its abundant human and material resources. Chapters take a retrospective look at government industrial development policies and programs, including the steel industry, agro-allied and forest-based industries, and the industrial estate development program. The book also discusses tariff and trade policies, incentives and disincentives to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing sector, and small and medium enterprise (SME) development. The book concludes with a look at the recent drive towards regional integration as well as the potential impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and sixteen countries of West Africa. Providing an exhaustive history of Nigeria’s economic and industrial development, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of African economics, development studies, and industrial organization, as well as policy makers in both the public and private sectors.

The inadequacies of many past studies that have tried to highlight the causes of the persistent underdevelopment in developing countries—such as Nigeria—have been noted to derive mainly from the focus and, in some cases, the methodologies adopted by the researchers. It has been suggested that, although many researchers recognize the inability to reproduce sufficient profit as undermining the capitalist accumulation process (and as a result the development of an economy), they have nevertheless often tended to ignore the importance of the political-economic arrangement and historical factors in the formation of expectations about the rate of profit. Indeed, in some cases, they have failed to provide a substantive account of these critical variables. This book highlights how the inherent contradictions of the contemporary political-economic arrangement and some historical factors undermined the peculiar capital accumulation processes in Nigeria, which, in turn, has slowed economic development in the country. This book contributes to the field of Nigeria studies by filling gaps that exist in both theoretical and empirical literature on growth and development in the country, deviating from the orthodox approach of analysing the nation’s problems purely based on the factors internal to the country and by imposing ready-made theoretical logics on history. Rather, it studies Nigeria’s problems in juxtaposition with the world system and imposes historical evidence on theoretical logics. This book represents a good resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on area studies. Researchers and policy-makers will also find it useful as a reference.

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

The topic of this research, the impact of global capitalism on economic development in Nigeria, sought to understand the role global capitalism has played in Nigeria’s economic development. Nigeria is presently considered a third-world country; however, researchers and economic observers expect that, based on the number of resources in the country, the standard of living of its citizens should be a lot better than it is currently. It is relevant to question why this is so, especially given that capitalism, which is so successful in many developed countries today, was introduced to Nigeria officially in 1986 by the World Bank through the structural adjustment plan. Through the scientific research process, this research examines why this is so and whether capitalism has aided or hindered development. While it is possible to argue that if Nigeria is underdeveloped today, capitalism has not done it any good, the country’s underdevelopment may not entirely be the fault of capitalism. Instead, it may have been caused by other intervening variables. This research examined the role of all those intervening variables in creating underdevelopment in Nigeria. Variables such as slavery, colonialism, and imperialism were examined to analyze their impact on the level of development in Nigeria. A neo-liberal view was also examined to balance the neo-Marxist view and other radical perspectives to understand Nigeria’s problems. Finally, internal factors such as corruption and conflicts were also examined to have an overview of the internal perspective of the problems of development in Nigeria. However, being the focus of this research, more critical analysis and data gathering was performed to examine the role of global capitalism on development in Nigeria. The literature review examined different contrasting opinions to understand where the debate lay on the topic at hand. Dependency theory was also introduced as the theoretical framework for analyzing the subject matter and interp