Nigeria: Political economy of economic growth

The World Bank and DFID are preparing a Country Economic Memorandum on Nigeria on the overall theme of “Competitiveness and Growth”. As part of the background work, the Policy Practice was commissioned to prepare a chapter on the political economy of growth and the factors and incentives the drive economic policy making. The chapter addresses three main questions: (i) how have political economy factors affected policy making and growth performance, (ii) what factors have driven the current reform efforts and what are the prospects for sustainability, and (iii) how can the country can move from patronage/individual based policy making to robust institutional based reform? The study was undertaken jointly with Professor Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School and involved two weeks field work in country meeting stakeholders in government, civil society and the private sector.