DP 77
ECONOMIC CRISIS, STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND THE COPING STRATEGIES OF MANUFACTURERS IN KANO, NIGERIA by Adebayo Olukoshi
UNRISD Discussion Papers are preliminary documents circulated in a limited number of copies to stimulate discussion and critical comment.
September 1996
♦ Preface
Nigeria’s manufacturing sector has experienced major changes in production techniques, labour relations, marketing arrangements and management practices, which raise questions about the future of industrialization and the livelihoods of industrial employees. Despite the high industrial growth rates that accompanied the petroleum boom of the 1970s, value added remained low for a number of key industries, which were often protected by an overvalued currency, tariff barriers and state subsidies. The long recession and the economic stabilization programmes of the 1980s exposed the structural weaknesses of import-substitution industrialization, and forced manufacturers to devise a variety of coping and accumulation strategies to overcome the crisis. What these strategies are and their implications for industrial growth and sustainability constitute the subject of this discussion paper. The study relies on government data, records of manufacturing companies and associations, as well as wide-ranging interviews of three groups of manufacturers — indigenous entrepreneurs, Levantine manufacturers and Western transnational corporations — to analyse entrepreneurial responses. By focusing on the dynamics of individual and collective corporate strategies, the study attempts to go beyond standard works that deal with the effects of adjustment on industry, which have often been concerned with technical issues: output growth, rates of investment or disinvestment, labour absorption and productivity, value added and industrial competitiveness. Instead, the author uses data derived from the coping strategies of the three groups
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