Beschreibung
Small enterprises, most of them operating informally,
are Nigeria’s most important providers of employment.
Nevertheless, they have to face many disadvantages in
their business activities. A conducive policy
environment would be necessary to overcome the
difficulties of small enterprises and take advantage
of their various positive features.
Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) promised to
enhance the opportunities of the small enterprise
sector. Why were these hopes not fulfilled? What are the
actual effects of SAP’s prominent instruments on the
small enterprise sector? Which is the framework for
small enterprise promotion after the implementation of
SAP?
The book addresses these questions and deals
with institutional arrangements and promotional
projects, focusing on skills acquisition as a
bottleneck for employment generation. Of particular
interest is the Nigerian Open Apprenticeship Scheme
NOAS, which originated in the desire to alleviate the
social and labour market problems of SAP. One of the
scheme’s important features – and almost unique in the
developing world – , is its combination of in-firm
training with schooling. Can this project be further
enhanced by learning from the German vocational
training system, where a similar approach is
considered to be responsible for its successful
performance?
The book also offers information on other aspects of
development co-operation between German agencies and
Nigerian counterparts in the field of small-enterprise
promotion: The Friedrich Ebert Foundation gives an
overview of its various activities to promote SSE
performance in Nigeria, and an evaluation of a German-Nigerian
Vocational Training Project provides one of
only a few published first-hand insights into the
practical problems of co-operation on the project
level.
Hans H. Bass is research fellow at the Department of
Development Studies at the University of Bremen.