The Process of Trade Reform in Nigeria and the Pursuit of Structural Adjustment

Abstract

Like many developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, Nigeria has in recent years been pursuing a programme of economic restructuring. Nigeria’s economic development during the past 20 years, although typical in many respects, has been dominated by the gyrations of world oil markets. Faced with sharply-declining revenues from oil exports during the early 1980s, the policies of maintaining an overvalued exchange rate, industrialisation through highly-subsidised import substitution and high levels of taxation of the agricultural sector through the system of commodity marketing boards were no longer sustainable. The economy slid into recession and the country was beset by political upheavals. The course of economic policy was not substantially changed until President Babangida formally committed the country to the far-reaching Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in July 1986.

The view and opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and should not be attributed to the institutions with which the author has been associated, including the Ministries of Industry and Finance, Federal Government of Nigeria, the World Bank or Maxwell Stamp. I have many debts to colleagues, too numerous to name, with whom I have worked in Nigeria during the past 13 years. Naturally, they are absolved of all shortcoming in this paper which are mine alone.