Book Description

This paper explores the likely impact of economic reforms on the performance of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. The paper utilized the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) econometric method on data for the period 1981-2009. The Granger causality test established unilateral relationships that exist between exchange rate, electric power consumption and federal government capital expenditure. The reforms variables have not be able to alter the performance of the manufacturing sector as the present situation of the country demands it over the period under review, as such, manufacturing sector is impacting negatively on economic growth. The study reveals that exchange rate and electric power consumption that captures the reform period have positive and negative effects on manufacturing output respectively and they are statistically significant. On the other hand, other variables aforementioned impact negatively on manufacturing output and they are not statistically significant. Complementarily, the coefficient of determination test student t-test demonstrated that the adopted reforms have not significantly influenced the performance of the manufacturing sector and it has render manufacturing sector inactive to economic growth and development. Policies that would improve the international competitiveness of the Nigerian manufacturing output and improve its level of growth are strongly advocated.