INCOME TAX RELIEF LEGISLATION’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT INFLOW AND FAILURE OF NIGERIA’S IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY: DISCOURSES ON INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA’S SECOND LARGEST ECONOMY (NIGERIA)
RRSS 2012 No.3 - Romanian Review of Social Sciences
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Authors:
• Richard Ingwe, Walter A. Mboto, Emmanuel Odu -
Keywords: Industrial development, Nigeria, iron and steel, post-independence, external debt, elite.
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Abstract:
The quest for industrial development in the post-independent era of Nigeria is considered a priority for achieving economic growth and social development. This article examines two aspects of Nigeria’s industrial/ economic development: the industrial development income tax relief of 1971 and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into Nigeria over decades preceding and after the introduction of the former legislation. Framing the analysis on the growth pole theoretical conceptualization and using methods of description and case study we obtained and analysed secondary data to show the trend of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector’s poor performance after the industrial development income tax relief was promulgated and administered in 1971. Nigeria’s manufacturing has been blighted by poor industrial capacity utilization, slow growth rate of manufacturing and low contribution of manufacturing sector to the total national gross domestic product (compared to other sectors of the economy such as peasant agriculture). FDI inflow into Nigeria increased sharply from a lower level in the 1960s to higher levels in the post-civil war decade (1971-1980). The low levels of industrial development and variation in FDI inflow prior to and after the industrial development tax legislation as well as the failure of Nigeria’s iron and steel industrial development programme are explicated. The policy implications of the findings of this study underline the urgency of tackling corruption perpetrated by Nigeria’s parasitic elite who have abused legal and other incentives provided industrialists by governments they dominate and influence since independence in 1960.