ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AND INFORMAL SECTOR GROWTH IN AFRICA: A REVIEW OF TWO SELECTED COUNTRIES

Abstract

The need to transform Africa into industrialization countries has become imperative in recent times. Inspite of the Africa’s numerous natural resource potentials, the citizens are still floundering with extreme poverty, diseases and poor national economic development. The global movement for transformation of governance has brought about sundry innovations in public administration. One of such innovations is economic diversification that will enhance the attainment of our objective of developing Nigeria into an industrialization country. The best global practices recognize the potency of the informal sector growth involvement in the good governance project. The study will seek to encourage the synergy between the government and informal sector for improved national economic development. To achieve the objective, the study employed both the descriptive and analytical approaches to review related literature and case studies of two selected African countries that largely depend on oil revenue to develop their economies. Within the framework of mixed economy and globalization systems and analysis of data, the findings revealed that African continent and Nigeria in particular are facing challenges of worsening economic development, poverty, infrastructural decay, bad governance and complex global market trends. It is recommended that government prioritize and craft strategies that will roll out effective mechanisms and programmes to build capacity. A consistent policies and regulatory frameworks for creating good governance mechanisms must be adopted while partnerships and informal sector growth should be promoted by government.