Enhancing Income Distribution and Rationalising Consumption Patterns

Abstract

Concern for income distribution has played an important role in Africa in the post-independence period. Most African countries inherited a dual wage structure from the colonial powers: one pay scale for expatriates and another for the indigenous population. Salary differentials in the civil service of 30 to 1 or more were not uncommon. Most governments aimed to redress this gap. Distributional concerns have also played an important role in government interventions based on price controls or direct or indirect subsidies in markets for major staples. Especially during the latter half of the 1970s, no respectable development plan could ignore the statements by central governments about poverty removal, the provision of basic needs and income distribution.