Diversification In Nigeria Research Articles

TRAJECTORY OF SME DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND PROSPECTIVE INSIGHT INTO DIVERSIFICATION PROGRESS IN NIGERIA

The pivotal role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in fostering economic diversification has been widely acknowledged as crucial for achieving inclusive growth and development. Recognising this, the Nigerian government has outlined the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021–2024), aligning with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and the National Development Plan (NDP), 2021–2025. This initiative seeks to establish an ecosystem for innovation-driven enterprises (IDE) and empower SMEs to embrace emerging technologies, a crucial aspect of technological catching-up in developing economies. This paper utilised qualitative research approach to critically analysed the perspective of SMEs development and its role in advancing economic diversification in Nigeria, an emerging economy within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in the context of technological catching-up. However, the introduction of policies such as SRAP has shown promise in encouraging SMEs to leverage technology for enhanced innovation, providing a pathway for these enterprises to catch up technologically in the broader context of developing economies. Additionally, our paper identifies infrastructure deficits as a critical factor impeding SME development, contributing significantly to the country's low ranking on the global Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index. In light of these findings, we recommend a comprehensive and effective implementation of policies to boost SME performance, generate employment opportunities, and alleviate poverty, thereby contributing to technological catching-up and broader national development in the context of developing economies.

Usman, Z. 2022. Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy

Nigeria se caracteriza por episodios de crecimiento irregular, es dependiente de los ingresos de las exportaciones de petróleo, tiene graves disparidades regionales y el factor político es importante en las decisiones estatales que han originado y profundizado el reto de diversificación económica. Esta problemática ha llevado a diversos investigadores a realizar diversas críticas y recomendaciones relativas a la situación descrita.

Impact of COVID-19 on Oil and Gas Sector in Nigeria: A Condition for Diversification of Economic Resources

A plethora number of literature advocates for economic diversification in Nigeria in order to address its socio-economic challenges. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has exemplified this viewpoint even further, as it has had a severe impact on many parts of the Nigerian economy while the federal government scrambles for revenue to fulfill national expenses. However, observation reveals that little attention is paid to the influence of COVID-19 on the oil and gas sector, despite the necessity to diversify economic resources for human capital development. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of COVID-19 on the Nigerian oil and gas sector. Problems are recognized and solutions are proposed through the textual analysis of literature. According to the research, COVID-19 has a negative influence on the oil and gas business in Nigeria due to Nigeria's overreliance on oil resources as a key source of national revenue, among other issues. As a result, the study emphasized the need for and importance of diversifying the nation's economic resources by focusing more attention on sectors such as SMEs that are aided with protection and promotion, as well as the agricultural sector, which incorporates technology and scientific input as a driving force for improvement. If adopted, diversification will address numerous difficulties such as poverty, which affects the majority of inhabitants, unemployment, mounting foreign debt, and the massive importation of products and services into the country due to a lack of economic diversification. According to the report, the Nigerian government should invest extensively in small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and agricultural investment in order to overcome the economic challenges caused by COVID-19's detrimental influence on the economy. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-SPER-019 Full Text: PDF

Impact of Monetary Policy on Economic Diversification in Nigeria: Further Empirical Analysis

One of the key objectives of the government’s economic policy is the prosperity and stability of the economy. It intends to achieve this by increasing the economy’s competitiveness in the global economic arena. However, besides the macroeconomic policy, another key determinant of an economy’s competitiveness is the extent of its diversification, understood in this context to mean the degree to which the economy moves away from a dominant income-earning sector or product to other ones. In view of this, study examined the impact of monetary policy on economic diversification in Nigeria using data for the period 1991 to 2021 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. The study made use of diversification index as the dependent variable, money supply, real exchange rate, gross fix capital formation, labour force ,as independent variables. Secondary time series data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, National Bureau of Statistics (various years/issues). Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis based on the ARDL technique. Based on the results obtained, the study shows that money supply, gross fix capita formation and labour force affects economic diversification positively while real effective exchange rate affects economic diversification negatively. The study therefore recommends that monetary authorities should be encouraged to increase money supply as this has similar benefit of increasing private consumption. Furthermore, maintaining a favourable external reserves should be pursued by the monetary authorities.

Medical Tourism: A Change Agent Towards Greater Economic Diversification in Nigeria

Medical Tourism: A Change Agent Towards Greater Economic Diversification in Nigeria

Political Environment and the Use of Energy Resources in Nigeria

This study examines the dynamic relationship between political environment and the use of energy resources in Nigeria covering the period from 1978-2017 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. The results reveal that democracy has a significant long run and short run positive influence on energy consumption in Nigeria. However, the positive effect decreases significantly with an increase in the level of oil dependence in the short run. The results of this study in general support the view that high dependence of political democratic structures on oil wealth influences the positive effects of democracy in making public goods available in developing net oil-exporting economies. Economic diversification in Nigeria may therefore require formulating policies that will enhance access to clean energy sources in the economy.

Development Policy, Plan and Economic Diversification in Nigeria: Perspectives on Economic Recovery and Growth Plan

The study examined the relationship between development policy/plan and economic diversification in Nigeria. It centered on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). The ERGP regime was adopted by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the wake of Nigeria’s economic recession in 2016. The vulnerabilities of the Nigerian economy and structural weaknesses (i.e., dependence on oil and gas for national revenue and main national export) have consistently created challenges for the nation’s economy. The ERGP was designed in 2017 to, among other things; diversify Nigeria’s economy between 2017 and 2020. To achieve economic diversification, one of the targets of the ERGP is to drive industrialization, with a focus on small and medium size enterprises to increase non-oil exports. Thus, the main objective of the study was to ascertain the extent of economic diversification since the adoption of the plan in the country. The study adopted the Endogenous Growth Theory to explain the extent of economic diversification in the country. The study relied on secondary data mainly from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), focusing on manufactured/non-oil exports and revenue from the non-oil sectors. The study revealed that there has been an accelerated implementation of the ERGP leveraging on the National Industrial Revolution Plan. Nonetheless, this effort has not significantly produced the desired result of economic diversification, as oil and gas remain the mainstay of the economy. For the ERGP to achieve the desired outcomes there is need to invest massively and genuinely in infrastructure (power, road, etc.), human capital development and research and development (R&D). Hence, the paper concluded that for Nigeria to enjoy substantial economic diversification there must be genuine and concerted government commitment to industrialization. The study recommended, among other things, that there should be massive investment in infrastructure, human capital development, research and development (R&D) to generate new ideas and institutionalization of a functional industrial development bank.

The Role of Manufacturing Sector in Economic Diversification of Nigeria (1986-2016)

It is widely accepted that an effective manufacturing sector serve as perfect tool for export diversification in developing countries. Therefore, this study investigated the role of manufacturing sector on economic diversification in Nigeria from the period of 1986-2016. In order to achieve the objective of the study, ARDL technique was employed to establish long-run relationship between diversification proxy by Theil index decomposed into Theil Total (TT), Theil Between (TB) and Theil Within (TW) and Manufacturing sector which was proxy by Manufacturing Capacity Utilization(MCU) and Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) controlled by Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER). The result revealed that long-run relationship exist among the estimated variables in the three models. MCU, MVA and GFCF promote total diversification and horizontal diversification in the long-run but the coefficients of MCU and MVA are insignificant. On the other hand, only Foreign direct investment and real effective exchange rate promote vertical diversification. The study recommended protection of infant industries, local sourcing of raw materials for production, Government programs that encourage competition among manufacturers in Nigeria and improved infrastructural development in order to enhance the productivity of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria that will position it for global competitiveness

Harnessing the potentials of millet production for food defense and economic diversification in Nigeria

Harnessing the potentials of millet production for food defense and economic diversification in Nigeria

Exploring the antecedents of entrepreneurship success in information technology firms in Nigeria

ABSTRACT We examine four antecedents of IT entrepreneurship success in Nigeria. Particularly, two of the investigated antecedents are general human capital factors (i.e., having experience with entrepreneurial parents and business training) and the other two (IT education and spirituality) are specific to IT entrepreneurship and the Nigerian context. In a quantitative study of 167 IT entrepreneurs in Nigeria, we found that the general factors are more important determinants of success among IT entrepreneurs in Nigeria than the specific ones. There is corroboration between our findings and the developed economy literature which provides ample evidence of a positive relationship between having experience with entrepreneurial parents and entrepreneurship success. Before our findings, limited knowledge existed on the complexity of this orthodoxy in developing markets such as Nigeria. Our result did not show any significant correlation between formal education in the IT field and IT entrepreneurial success. Our paper contributes to the discourse on the antecedents of entrepreneurship success by focusing on IT entrepreneurship from a developing country context. This is particularly critical when one considers the importance of IT entrepreneurship towards economic diversification in Nigeria. The unique theoretical contribution of our paper lies in its introduction of the specific antecedents (constructs), IT-education and spirituality, even though they were not found as significant determinants of entrepreneurship success in the Nigerian context. Our findings imply that national entrepreneurial policy should be tailored to exploit the inherent benefits of experience with entrepreneurial parents and effectively blend it with factors such as business school education and other forms of relevant training in the areas of social competence.

Entrepreneurship and Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Moderating Influence of Enabling Environment on Global Satellite Mobile Village’s Experience

This study investigated “Entrepreneurship and Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Moderating influence of Enabling Environment on Global Satellite Mobile Village’s Experience.” The purpose was to find out the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic diversification with focus on the moderating influence of enabling environment. A cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling technique were adopted. Pilot survey and confirmatory factor analysis were carried out to validate the research instrument. The reliability test of the instrument yielded a value of 0.67 which more than met Bagozzi and Yi’s benchmark of α ≥ 0.50 and as such, was accepted as adequate and used. Primary data were obtained from 127 copies of questionnaire issued out of which 120 copies representing 94% return rate were retrieved and used in the study. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyse the data aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. The findings showed that there was no significant relationship between entrepreneurship and economic diversification. However, the enabling environment had significant moderating influence on the relationships between entrepreneurship and economic diversification. These findings informed the conclusion that enabling environment moderates the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic diversification. It is recommended that further empirical study be carried out in other segments of the economy with more factors to corroborate or diverge from these outcomes. Moreover, government should create cultural awareness, deploy resources to diversify the economy via entrepreneurship and free itself from the Dutch disease of resource curse theory.

Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria: Implication for Economic Diversification

Nigerian government through its various agencies, World Bank, nongovernmental organizations, and even private philanthropists, has recently resorted to committing a lot of resources to training and empowering the youths in various entrepreneurships. This is done with the aim of enhancing creation of jobs, reduction of poverty, and generation of income both to individuals and government thereby bringing about economic diversification which will help reduce overdependence on government and oil revenue, hence leading to economic growth and development. While these initiatives are steps in the right direction, this study therefore empirically examined whether empowering the youths has significantly contributed to the growth of entrepreneurship thereby leading to economic diversification in Nigeria using the Nigeria Enterprise Survey Data (2014) and applying the multinomial logistic regression model. It was found among others that almost all the variables used to capture entrepreneurship growth and development in Nigeria were statistically significant except for tax rates, transportation cost, and land access (comparing micro and large enterprises with the small-scale enterprise) and tax rates, subsidy, and land access (comparing medium enterprise with small-scale enterprise). It was recommended among others that governments at all levels and its various agencies, World Bank, nongovernmental organizations, and even private philanthropists, need to do more on entrepreneurship training programs of youths. The training should be accompanied with sustained financial and nonfinancial support and monitoring the business activities of these entrepreneurs after empowering them.

The composition and determinants of rural non-farm income diversification in Nigeria

Farming has been considered as main source of income for rural households in Nigeria, despite their involvement in other income generating activities. Focusing on income derivable from farming alone may be partially responsible for the ineffective poverty reduction strategies in Nigeria. Using the National Living Standard Survey data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics, this paper investigated the composition and determinants of non-farm incomes of rural households in Nigeria. The results show that the share of farm, non-farm wage (NFW)- and self-employment (NFS) incomes in total household incomes were 24.3%, 43.0% and 23.7% respectively. Households whose heads are male (0.647), had formal education (0.522), increased the likelihood of households’ participation in NFW activities, while access to credit (-0.307) and having larger farm size (-0.221) decreased it. Access to credit (0.379); community participation (0.103); larger family size (0.193) and possession of capital assets (0.069) increased the likelihood of participation in NFS-employment activities, while having larger farm size (-0.211) decreased it. The study concludes that policy targeting poverty reduction should focus on providing enabling environment for poor households’ access to non-farm activities in the study area.

Rural Livelihood Diversification in Nigeria: Implications for Labour Supply and Income Generation

Rural Livelihood Diversification in Nigeria: Implications for Labour Supply and Income Generation

Trade Policy and Export Diversification in Nigeria in the years 1970-2017: A Sectoral Analysis

Trade Policy and Export Diversification in Nigeria in the years 1970-2017: A Sectoral Analysis

Electricity Supply and Economic Diversification in Nigeria (1981-2016)

Abstract The study examined the impact of electricity supply on economic diversification in Nigeria, using time series data from 1981 to 2016. The study employed descriptive analysis and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) techniques. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test showed that the variables are integrated of different orders. The result from the Bounds co-integration test to show the presence of a long-run relationship among the variables was inconclusive. The short run (ARDL) model, however, indicated a positive insignificant relationship between electricity supply and economic diversification in Nigeria. The findings of the study revealed that the electricity supply had not played a fundamental role in enhancing economic diversification in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommended that for Nigeria to drive economic diversification through electricity supply, the government should fix the electricity supply problem which can be achieved by short-term action to reduce technical faults through maintenance of the transmission and distribution infrastructure or long-term interventions to expand generating capacity.

Economic Diversification and the Urban Image; Changing the Narrative on Street Vending

Street vending is a dynamic phenomenon of network of events, socio-economic and cultural factors while remaining a narration of place. At the metropolitan level, the narrative is negatively skewed towards street vending and its aesthetic reality, contemporaneously exploring hostile environmental interventions within the informal sector. This paper attempted to explore a counter-narrative asking; based on aesthetic experience, can the “desired” urban image to be achieved by allowing street vendors proliferate in public spaces? This question was asked within the scope of the political-economy of diversification in Nigeria. The paper argued that, around public spaces such as parks and sidewalks, the precarious nature of vending activities lead to their diffidence in upgrades to stalls, tables and kiosks. With pictures from spaces that appear to approve of street vending tacitly, a pattern of upgrades in vending apparatus and kiosks were established. This paper proposes an integrative model of passive, active and tacit support that is required to influence the discourse of vending activities within the context of urban images produced in Nigerian. In conclusion and using sing Gouverneur (2014) concepts of receptors and transformers, this paper revealed that potential existing parks within a dense urban area could serve as transformers, creating an urban image that defies that “out of place” narrative associated with vendors.

Macroeconomic Analysis of Export Diversification in Nigeria

In this paper, the Theil index was utilized to study the impact of macroeconomic variables on diversification in Nigeria for the period 1981-2015, using the bounds test approach to cointegration on data generated from secondary sources. Cointegration was found to exist between the economic diversification indicators and associated variables. We also found that capital formation, real effective exchange rate, domestic credit to private sector and foreign direct investment promote diversification. Government efforts in Nigeria should be geared towards diversifying the economy using oil revenue, promote foreign direct investment in the non-oil sector, provide fixed capital, encourage the flow of credit to the private sector, and implement a cautious exchange rate regime.

Foreign Direct Investment, Export Performance and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

This study sets out to examine the role of manufacturing sector Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the quest for export sector diversification in Nigeria for sustainable development. This objective was achieved by estimating the effects of manufacturing sector FDI on manufactured goods export from Nigeria using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimating technique. The study discovered that FDI inflows into the country’s manufacturing sector impacted negatively on manufactured exports in the short run. The short run result nevertheless gave way to a positive and significant influence of FDI on manufactured exports in the long run, indicating that this form of foreign capital is important for manufactured export promotion in Nigeria. The resulting long run positive FDI- spillovers on export performance in Nigeria is in tandem with the neoliberal theoretical viewpoint that developing countries can rely on FDI as ladder to sustainable development. The findings suggest that sustainable development can be enhanced in Nigeria by exploiting the channel of positive spillovers from sector specific FDI inflows. The study concludes that with appropriate policy stance, one important way of pursuing the long run goal of sustainable development is to route FDI inflows in the direction of the country’s manufacturing sector.

Diversify More or Less? Household Income Generation Strategies and Food Security in Rural Nigeria

We provide new findings on rural livelihood diversification in Nigeria, using panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). To a large extent, the patterns and the implications of livelihood diversification have been analysed using cross sectional data and a narrow definition of food security in previous studies. In some cases, analysis has been conducted in the absence of shock experiences. We find that some results about the determinants of income diversification in cross sectional analysis also hold true in the panel data setting, while others are only revealed due to the panel nature of the data set. We find that the relationship between wealth and income diversification in rural Nigeria is best categorised as upward sloping with diminishing marginal effects rather than a U shape or an inverted U shape as found in previous studies. We also find that income diversification favours food accessibility, food availability, and food utilisation, and therefore resilience capacities overall. We do not find any evidence that income diversification mitigates or aggravates the impact of shocks, as shock experiences appear to negatively affect food security in spite of income diversification.