TITLE:
Economic Reforms and an African Market Economy
AUTHORS:
Oluremi Ogun
KEYWORDS:
Industry Studies—Manufacturing, Services, Telecommunications, Agriculture, Economy-Wide Country Studies—Africa, Innovation and Invention
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
15,
2018
ABSTRACT: Economic reforms described the collection of policies to re-orientate economic activities in an attempt to re-direct the desired course of evolution of an economy. They were therefore aimed at altering the structure of an economic system for sustainable growth. Economic reforms in Nigeria had their genesis in the structural adjustment program instituted in 1986 to stem the tide of dwindling economic fortunes consequent upon the glut in the market for the country’s main export resource as well as the management oversight of the oil-boom era. Economic regulation had been the general management philosophy in the period before and during the oil boom of the 1970s. Several other reform programs had succeeded the 1986 initiatives. Mostly, the reforms were directed at eliminating distortions in the various markets and relying on market forces for resource allocation and general macroeconomic decisions. Based on a descriptive analytical method, this study showed that the expectations of a smaller government size and a larger private sector were realized. Also, the remarkable expansion in the telecommunications and the education sectors were gains. A combination of low technical changes and little innovations appeared to explain the dwindling contributions of other activity sectors and the general inert economy.