Industrialization in an Open Economy: Nigeria 1945–1966

This book provides a detailed study of how manufacturing and processing industries have developed in the largest country of West Africa. Three chapters devoted to import substitution examine the interaction of growing consumer demand and the market strategy objectives of foreign merchant firms which produced the sudden spurt of industrialization in the late 1950s. It is shown that conventional government promotion policies played an insignificant role in triggering industrial development. Subsequent chapters present analyses of Nigeria's processing industries, applied industrial research, labour supply and productivity, technical education, industrial relations and indigenous entrepreneurial performance. The study goes beyond questions of efficiency in allocating resources, to underlying organizational and institutional factors. Professor Kilby concludes by isolating key problems in the industrialization process and by suggesting an optimum development strategy.