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Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org NATIONAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY & POVERTY REDUCTION IN NIGERIA: A CRITIQUE Abdu Ja’afaruBambale M. Sc (Economics), MBA, B. Sc (Business Administration), Department of Business Administration, Bayero University, Kano. ABSTRACT Poverty is one of the most common characteristics of the third world countries including Nigeria. National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) is a reform agenda by Nigerian Government modeled on the IMF’s poverty reduction and growth facility to achieve some macroeconomic goals of stability, poverty alleviation, wealth creation, and employmentgeneration. This paper investigates the extent to which the goal of poverty reduction has been achieved after the first phase of its implementation (2004-2007).The paper adopted the content analysis of library materials, publications and other documented researches pertaining to the subject-matter. The paper concludes that NEEDS has not made a significant impact on Nigeria’s infrastructures and standard of living of the majority and therefore status of poverty remain at an alarming rate. The failure of NEEDS to significantly generate employment and reduce poverty has been attributed largelyto weak institutional frameworks andlack of political will in the Nigerian state. To achieve poverty reduction and economic progress in Nigeria, majority of Nigerians must have access to quality education and the leadership must be truly committed to the economic reform agenda by encouraging development of stronger State institutions and creating an enabling investment environment. Keywords: Poverty Reduction, Employment, Reform Program, Wealth Creation Christianity. A few portion of the population 1. INTRODUCTION practice traditional religion. Nigeria is a Federal Republic comprising of thirtysix states and a Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, the Abujawith an estimated population figure of 154.7 eighth most populous country in the world, and the million people (UNDP, 2009). The country is most populous country in the world in which the located in the West of Africa and shares land majority of the population is black (Adelakun, borders with four countries including the Republic 2008). It is a member of the United Nations and of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the Commonwealth countries. It is also a very east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south influential member of African Union (AU) and lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) Nigeria has three major ethnic groups called Hausa, among Igbo and Yoruba. In terms of religion the country organizations. has two dominant religions – Islam and © Global Research Society, 2011 other international Nigeria‟s and economy regional has been described as one of the fastest growing in the world 15 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org (IMF, 2008; Ayodele, 2008; Atser, 2008). It is the report that more than 70% of the Nigerian third greatest economy in Africa and the largest population lives in poverty despite the country's exporter of oil in Africa (Spencer, 2010). enormous resources.Nigeria has a low per capita income which is an indication of the existence of At the time of Nigeria‟s political independence in poverty among its citizens. The per capita income 1960, agriculture was the main stay of the has experienced a sustained retrogression for more economy, accounting for about 70 percent of the than 2 decades, for example the per capita GNP in GDP and about 90 percent of foreign exchange Nigeria was estimated at US$1,000 in 1977 (Kirk- earnings. Manufacturing, which contributed 3.9 Green and Rimer, 1981) dropped to US$800 by percent in 1960/61, reached a peak of about 10 1982, it fell to US$359 in 1986 (Fadahunsi, 1993) percent in 1981 and thereafter started to decline and fell further to US$90 in 2000 (Obasi, 2000). progressively to lowest level of 2.57 percent in 2006. Crude oil became dominant in the Nigerian After the successful transition to civil rule on May economy, starting from 1970s and presently 29th1999, accounts for about 40 percent of GDP, over 95 OlusegunObasanjo, stated the need for reform percent of foreign exchange earnings, and over 70 because of the myriad socio-economic problems percent of Federal Government revenue source that (Chinedu, Titus and Thaddeu, 2010).Since her Government, the economy was overburdened with independence in 1960, Nigeria‟s economy has been problems such as an energy crisis manifested in a over widespread scarcity of petroleum products and dependence on agriculture to over dependence on erratic power supply; high fiscal deficits which crude petroleum. Over dependence on a single threw macroeconomic fundamentals out of order primary product (crude oil) has made the Nigerian and a near total collapse of infrastructure and economy to be volatile and susceptible to services. The economy was experiencing low vulnerabilities in the global market environment. industrial outputs, high unemployment and a Therefore, the recent economic reforms (NEEDS) crushing debt burden (Obasanjo, 1999). The introduced after 13 years of military rule target President therefore launched a series of economic restructuring value reforms in March 2004 designed to address the reorientation, privatization and diversification of structural and institutional weaknesses of the the economy. Nigerian economy. The economic reform package mono-cultural the one, moving economy from through the engulfed then Nigeria. President According Chief to the includes acceleration of privatization, deregulation Unfortunately, despite the country‟s vast oil wealth and liberalization of key sectors of the economy, andabundant human resources, endemic corruption monetary and mismanagement of thenation‟s resources as a development, result to accountability and institutionalization of anti- undermine country‟s economic development and corruption machineries as key factors of good social integration (Adogamhe, 2007; Bambale, governance (Adogamhe, 2007). poor leadership, have continued and fiscal reforms, infrastructural enhancedtransparency and 2005). The country continues to plunge in to poverty and its attendant consequences. In line with President Obasanjo‟s administration stated that the that argument Nwokeoma (2010) and WB (2010) new reform programs have been condensed in what © Global Research Society, 2011 16 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 they called economic Economic an all-embracing program known Empowerment Strategy (NEEDS). as home-grown the and Development poverty reduction in Nigeria. The paper presents diverse areas of the Nigerian economy where the Government reform package (NEEDS) has Government recorded tremendous achievement during its first alsoseeks an effective economic coordination of phase (2004-2007). Similarly, the paper makes a and a close collaboration with the state and critique of the reform agenda using various localGovernments by encouraging them to design stakeholders‟ standpoints and assessments of the and implement equivalent programs based on performance of the neoliberal economic reform theNEEDS model with acronyms including State package. Therefore, as the methodology, the paper Economic uses research papers and views expressed about the Strategy The federal National www.efr.businessjournalz.org Empowerment (SEEDS) Empowerment and and and Development Local Economic reforms‟ problems and failure Strategy documented in published journals and e-resources. (LEEDS) respectively.The NEEDS program which It is observable, therefore, that the paper tries to was modeled from the IMF‟s Poverty Reduction present a balanced reports and analysis of the and Growth Facility (Adogamhe, 2007) was performance of the NEEDS. This paper is unique in specifically designed to lay a solid foundation for the sense that it provided a balanced review of sustainable employment NEEDS‟ performance using a lot of statistical data generation, wealth creation, and value-oriented and diverse stakeholder assessments. Conclusively, economy (Obasanjo, 2004). The poverty reduction using the diverse outcomes and viewpoints and wealth creation were dependent on the private expressed, the paper proposes some solutions for sector to grow the economy and provide jobs and effective poverty reduction reforms. poverty Development economic reduction, on the public sector to provide an enabling environment for development” (Okonjo-Iweala, 2. NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEEDS: 2005). CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS There was a high expectation that the new economic reform could fix the socio-economic Some nation states perform better economically problem that bedeviled Nigeria for a long period than considering its scope, comprehensiveness and development. There are predominantly two major reorientation potentials it portrays. It could be economic deduced easily from program papers that NEEDS conservative economic paradigm and neo-liberal differs significantly from the past similar economic paradigm. The conservative approach accepts the policy Nigeria had in the mid 1980 called state as the agent of economic development (Evans, Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) as it is Rueschemeyer and Skocpol, 1985; Streeten,1992; thought to be more comprehensive, realistic, and Kohli, 2004) while the neo-liberal paradigm tends better coordinated and tends to reflect the input of to discourage or minimize the role of State in the country‟s stakeholders. performing business activities (World Bank,1987 others in bringing paradigms, about namely the growth statist or or and 1991; Williamson,1998; Gore, 2000).The The objective of this paper is to provide a critical theoretical debates therefore thrive along those who review of the performance of NEEDS in respect to view the state as the key economic player and © Global Research Society, 2011 17 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org engine of economic development and the neo- services likeeducation, health and environmental liberal or pro-market school who believe in protection” (Obasanjo, 1999). It was well argued minimizing the role of the state in the process of by economic development. positively correlate with improved macroeconomic neoliberal economists that privatization performance and real higher GDP growth. Hence The NEEDS was conceived within the framework other things being equal, there would be increase in of neo-liberal economic order that limits the role of the levels of incomes and employment and Government ownership of productive resources. reduction of poverty (Barnett, 2000) The NEEDS was premised on recognizing the private sector as the engine of economic growth 2.1.Needs’ Performance Achievements and that a robust private business initiative is associated with profitability, efficiency and promotion of rapid economic growth. The neoliberal economic order believes that Government intervention in the economy to conduct business operations generally threatens private investors‟ incentives because sometimes the goal of the Government may be to divert efforts and resources from productive to non-productive activities and corruptibly redistributes wealth to benefit the ruling elite rather than further investment in business operations for the realization of greater capital surplus (Adogamhe, 2007). Therefore, NEEDS has been anchored to return business to private investors by creating an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and to restructure the State by making it smaller, stronger, better skilled, and capable of providing essential services that promote an effective and efficient market.One core component of NEEDS is the transfer of state ownedenterprises to capital owners and thus privatization has become thepillar of Nigeria‟seconomic reform. The architect of the reform agenda, former President Obasanjo stated “privatization permitsGovernments to concentrate resources on their core functions and responsibilities, whileenforcing the rule of the game so that the market can work efficiently with provision ofadequate security and basic infrastructure as well as ensuring access to key The Nigerian Government and the IMF were conspicuous in explaining the achievements of the neoliberal reform agenda (NEEDS) in the economy that hitherto operated an economy that Government was a major player. The achievements of the reforms have stabilization centered of the on macroeconomic Nigerian economy by improvingbudgetary planning and execution, and provided a platform for sustained economic diversification and non-oil growth (Okonjo-Iweala and Osafo-Kwaako, 2007). The reform fiscal policy had enabledaccumulation of government savings for back-up purposes. Government expenditure estimates were based on a prudent oil price benchmark. Government budgeting was based on conservative oil prices of $25 per barrel in 2004, $30 per barrel in 2005 and $35 per barrel in 2006, despite higher realized prices of $38.3 and $54.2 in 2004 and 2005 respectively, and an estimated average price of $68 for 2006 (IkonjoIweala and Osafo-Kwaako, 2007). This development had helped in declining government expenditure from oil revenue earnings. Gross excess crude saving totaled about $6.35b at the end of 2004 and about $17.68b by the end of 2005 (CBN, 2006).Additionally, the external reserves had grown by an annual average rate of about 23% from US$7.68 billion in 2004 to US$43 billion at the end of 2006, as against 12.2 percent target (IMF, 2007). © Global Research Society, 2011 18 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org US$5b in 2006. This was a positive development to Statistics provided by the IMF (2007) indicated Nigerianeconomy that hithertowas overridden by Nigeria had experienced growth in virtually all its internal and external debts. sectors of the economy during the first phase of NEEDS‟s implementation. Real GDP annual In order to address the structural constraints to growth rate averaged 6.6 percent (2004-2006) as growth, state-owned enterprises which were largely against the annual target of 6.0 percent;phenomenal considered unproductive, corruption-ridden and a growth in the net in-flow of foreign direct drain on scarce public resources, were privatized. investment investment The reform program which included deregulation particularly in the banking and telecommunications of telecommunication sector for example, had sectors was achieved.The FDI rose fromUS$1.866b attracted over US$1b a year in investment in the in 2004 to US$2.3b and US$4.8b in 2005 and 2006 four-year period of the NEEDS‟s first phase respectively.However, the oil sector annual growth resulting in increase in the number of telephone rate averaged 0.23 percent as against 0.0 percent lines from about 500,000 landlines in 2001 to over targeted in the period 2004–2006 while the non-oil 32 million GMS lines. That had made Nigeria to sector average annual growth rate was 8.2 percent become one of the countries with the fastest as against the NEEDS target of 8.0percent between growing teledensity in the world (Okonjo-Iweala 2004 and 2006. and Osafo-Kwaako, 2007) The domestic and foreign debt profile had Other economic spheres where NEEDS had Nigeria‟s recorded appreciable achievement include fiscal reform and monetary policies. Public spending was programme, Nigeria was able to pay its debts reduced from 47.0 percent in 2001 to 35.4 percent arrears owed to some International Finance in 2004 which resulted to budget surplus of 7.7 Institutions (IFIs) particularly the Paris and London percent of GDP for 2004, up from deficits of 4-5 Clubsvia: (1) Direct repayment where $6.4b was percent of GDP in 2002-2003 (USAID, 2006). The paid (2) Debt buy back arrangement where $8b was supply of money declined from an annual rate of settled at 25% discount, and (3) Debts write-off 24.1 percent in 2003 to 14.0 percent in 2004. This where $16b was written-off by the creditors. The restraining monetary policy, along with fiscal entire Paris Club debt relief enjoyed by Nigeria restraint and the policy of putting the excess crude totaledUS$18b, or a 60% for a US$12.4b payment oil revenues into reserves led to reduction of of arrears and buyback. Similarly, the debts owed inflation from an average of 18.5 percent in 2001- to London club commercial creditorswere also 2003 restructured and paid off. The domestic debts 2005(Adogamhe, 2007). constituted (FDI) another macroeconomic and portfolio constraint stability. Under on the to an estimated 10.1 percent in constituting about 12% of GDP in 2005, owed to contractors and civil service pensioners were The banking sector was among the sectors of the systematically paid(Okonjo-Iweala and Osafo- Nigerian economy that got a boost from the Kwaako, 2007; IMF Report 2007). Furthermore, implementation of NEEDS. The new rules of IMF (2007) claims that Nigeria‟s total external debt recapitalization and restructuring exercise had stock had reduced from over US$30b to less than made it possible for the Nigerian banking sector to © Global Research Society, 2011 19 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org become stronger to support industrial growth and Federal Capital Territory, as well as the 774 Local reduce the rate of bank failure in Nigeria. Market Governments. Furthermore, as part of governance capitalization, which stood at N285.8b in 1996 rose and to N2.9tin 2005. The mergers and acquisitions of Government introduced two institutions to tackle banks that followed the banking restructuring and corruption in the domestic official and business consolidation hadprovided the desired synergy for environments; faster and easier growth of the private sector Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the (Adogamhe, 2007).In the civil service sector, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related reform considered the civil service as over-sized, Offences Commission (ICPC). Through these poorly remunerated, corrupt and under-skilled, institutions, there had been more than 500 resulting delivery. convictions and many are awaiting trial for various Therationalization policy of the reform therefore corruption practices and assets worth over $5b had weeded out a total of 35,700 redundant workers been seized, confiscated and refunded to the State which resulted to saving the Government an and other victims of crime (Okonjo-Iweala and estimated cost of about N26b, while 1,000 Osafo-Kwaako, university graduates were recruited. Also the public recovered from N747b granted indiscriminately service wages were increased by15% and fringe without following the due process (Waziri, 2010). in poor service institutional reform these are achievements, the 2007).Recently Economic N66.7b the and was benefits including house and cars were monetized and consolidated with basic salaries (Ogbo, 2006). On governance front, innovative processes that promoted anti-corruption, transparency and accountability were put in place. The ECOWAS Common External Tariff, the simple (unweighted) average tariff rate was introduced which resulted in declined tariff rate from 29% to 18%, while the weighted average tariff rate fell from 25% to 17%. Also as a result of adopting the „due process mechanism‟ the trend of losing an average of about N40b each year from corrupt practices in public procurement had stopped (Okonjo-Iweala and Osafo-Kwaako, 2007). The mechanism hadpromoted an open tender process, competitive costing of contracts, and use of database of international prices, tender publishing and issuance of due process certificate. Also a monthly publication of the state and local government shares of the Federation Account was introduced in January 2004, providing details of revenue allocation to all the 36 state Governments and 3. THE CRITIQUE OF NEEDS Using economic data and statistics,NEEDS had recorded tremendous success as indicated in the precedingpresentation. However, the economic reform was not free of criticisms from different stakeholders of the Nigeria‟s economy. Many individuals have maintained that available evidenceshave indicatedsome shortcomings and failure of NEEDS. Many critics have claimed that NEEDS instead of ameliorating poverty had aggravated it and had failed to improve the basic infrastructures that have direct link to poverty reduction.The UNDPusing its Human Poverty Index (HPI) showed an increase in poverty from 34.0 percent to 38.8 percent during the period 2001-2007 (UNDP, 2009). The HPI ranges from 0 (for no deprivation) to 100 (for extreme deprivation). Recently, Nigeria ranks 114th with HPI-1 value of 36.2% among 135 selected countries (UNDP, 2009). The UNDP‟s HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health, education and standard of living. Similarly, in a research © Global Research Society, 2011 20 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org about how far the globe was doing on poverty and The privatization process of Nigeria‟s reform hunger reduction that included 81 countries of the regime was marked by lack of transparency and world (Gentilini and Webbb, 2008) found that institutional capacity, weak private sector, poor Nigeria was seriously behind when measured management and absence of popularly acceptable against a new poverty indicators they called regulatory framework. The sales of public assets poverty-hunger index. Specifically, they found that were mostly without competitive bidding and were Nigeria had 0.156 values on matching towards largely sold off to the political class, politically achieving the Millennium Development Goals well-connected individuals and family members of (MDGs) which interprets to mean low. More political elites (Adogamhe, 2007; Izibili and Aiya, important revelation about the poverty situation in 2007). Relative to lack of transparency and Nigeria in their research was the negative values of institutional -0.392 and -0.355 on poverty and poverty gap investigations had revealed the corrupt involvement composites respectively. The negative values on of the top two political power holders of Nigerian the two composites of the poverty and hunger State in the privatization process. The sum of index (PHI) were indicators of reversing trends in $145m was found to be diverted as loans to the the reducing friends of former Nigerian Vice President from the poverty and poverty gap that formed part of PHI. In Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). the 81 countries included in the (Gentilini and Similarly, the investigations have indicted the Webbb, 2008) robust poverty study, Nigeria was former Nigerian President of diverting funds from Nigeria‟s performance towards rd. ranked 73 in terms of poverty and hunger index. capacity, Nigeria‟sSenate same PTDF for purchase of public assets to the tune of $27m (Alechenu and Josiah, 2007; Orilade, The reform measures have left much to be 2007). Specifically, privatization process in Nigeria desiredon the Nigeria‟s local manufacturing sector. was manipulated to generate new opportunities for Harsh business environment has restrained the rent-seeking and corrupt business practices, in a performance of local manufacturers in Nigeria. The manner that undermines rather than enhances sector confronts with myriad of constraints economic efficiency (Daily independent editorial, including acute power shortage, multiple taxations, 16/08/2010). insecurity of life and property, high interest rate, poor infrastructure, inefficient port administration, In spite of the reform structures and institutions among others leading to more than 45 percent established by the Government to ensure economic decline of industrial capacity underutilization and efficiency, transparency and proper management, closure of more than 60 percent of industrial there is enough evidence that the reforms did not companies (Amanze, 2010). The reforms need to achieve those noble objectives (Adogamhe, 2007). be consolidated by different policy measures Critics and analysts have claimed the corruption is designed to discourage imports and encourage on the increase and could not allow any meaningful greater reliance on the products of domestic reform such as NEEDS to make impact on the industries, stimulate local production to contribute economy. Tilde (2010) reveals that US$16billion to GDP growth, create more jobs and reduce was stolen between 2004 and 2007 on electricity unemployment and poverty. projects alone. In a similar fashion, from 1997 to 2010 the EFCC puts the economic and financial © Global Research Society, 2011 21 Economics and Finance Review 1(1): 15-24, March, 2011 www.efr.businessjournalz.org crimes at an approximate sum of N1.2t. In the the Nigerian State plays its required role as Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2009 report by provided in the neoliberal economic order of Transparency International (TI), a global anti- providing enabling environment, the actualization corruption watchdog, Nigeria received 2.5 out of a of poverty reduction would continue to remain a possible 10 marks, emerged 27th out of the mirage. Regular and efficient power supply surveyed 47 nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and remains the main infrastructure that is required to 33rd out of the 53 countries in Africa. Nigeria's release the full entrepreneurial energies of Nigerian CPI index in the span of an eight year period dating economy. Stable power supply is the basis for back to 2001 did not improve until 2006 when it creating ranked 142nd out of 163 countries. For four years opportunities consecutively from 2001 to 2005 Nigeria ranked economic growth and poverty reduction (Fashola, second to last in CPI ranking with 1.0 (Edet, 2009). 2010). more wealth, and providing unleashing more job unprecedented With less corruption, many infrastructures will function and budgeted funds will be spent for the Although the neoliberal oriented reforms represent real purpose (Okoh, 2010). Similarly, in his critical the Government‟srobust and bold attempt to remark about state of the economy in the era of reposition the Nigerian economy to achieve Nigeria‟s reforms, former Head of State, Gen economic progress, the reforms could be functional MuhamaduBuhari was reported saying, “Despite only when the State fulfills its stakeholder role the enormous funds that have accrued to the within the premise of a free market economy. The country in sustained way over a period of thirteen major obstacles to improving opportunities and years, Nigeria has never had it so bad. That wealth capabilities of the poor and reducing their and the economic growth the Government has been vulnerabilities contained in the reforms remain at claiming, has not in any fundamental way the level of Nigeria‟s leadership where the political improved the ordinary Nigerians‟ condition in will and ethical considerations seem to be terms of literacy, health, nutrition, employment and lacking.Going by the reform critique, the reforms physical security” (Jide and Azken, 2007). substantially benefited only the political class, big business enterprises, rent seekers and a few local small and medium scale entrepreneurs.Nigeria 4. CONCLUSION must have focused leadership and stronger State institutions for reforms to significantly reduce Despite the achievements recorded by NEEDS, the reality indicates that the reforms have left much to be desired. The basic infrastructures including water, electricity, education, transportation and health facilities remain deplorable. In spite of the increased economic fortune as a result of high crude oil prices in the international market in the last 13 years, Nigeria is stillgrouped among poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with a very high poverty level (UNDP,2009) and poverty and stimulate economic progress. Corruption, poor state of basic infrastructure and weakinstitutions remained the major deterrents to investment, sustainable growth and improvement insocial welfare(DFID, 2006). 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