Performance of Small Scale Industries in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.
ABSTRACT
The Nigeria’s public sector has ballooned, in part since independence in 1960, on the back of the oil-boom years of the 1970s.
The country had more 2000 public enterprises by early 1990s and there were concerns about inefficiencies and have negative effect on the aggregate economy, consequently, most of them have either been privatized or commercialized.
Ostensibly, global economic literatures and parameters reveal that small-scale industry is the bedrock of economic development.
It is one of the secrets behind economic growth over the years. The various Nigerian governments have also adopted or pursued one policy or the other intended to foster grass root development, and improved the standard living of our rural dwellers.
All these policies and programmes have failed to impact significantly on this area. The researcher affirming the global view on small-scale industries, and decided to investigate the contributions of small-scale industries at Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.
The researcher adopted the use of questionnaire and oral interviews as statistical instrument for the study. During the study 500 questionnaires were randomly distributed to 500 respondents two industries in that Local Government Area. The data collected were presented and analyzed using chi-square at 95 percent confidence level (i.e. x = 0.5).
The study reveals that small-scale industry is the engine of rural economic development. The industry creates job opportunities, provides basic. Infrastructures and social amenities, Small-scale industry motivates other economic activities that guarantee qualitative standard of living.
However, the researcher concluded by emphasizing on the performance of small-scale industries in Lagos State and she urges the State and Local government to encourage the establishment of such industries in the rural areas because of their goals and objectives of grassroots development will be achieved.
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Nigeria is a country greatly endowed with many natural and human resources. The business environment apparently offers opportunities for many entrepreneurial ventures. Ironically, despite these endowments, her state of economic development leaves much to be desired.
Whereas entrepreneurship may not be the missing factor alone. It is without doubt an important component in the process of economic development. Infact, the start up and development of small industries remain one of the major ingredients of continue growth in any national economy.
Consequently, in the quest for Nigeria’s economic development, the role of indigenous entrepreneurship likely to be much more important in small industries than in large undertakings that are generally favoured by planners in the past.
Some time ago, Albert Hirschman (1958), said that development is like a jigsaw puzzle, it is easier to fit in a particular piece when the adjoining pieces are already in place; the pieces that are hard to find are those with only one neighbor in place.
This clever analogy evokes two very important economic principles that both researchers and policy makers are rediscovering as Nigeria moves from the decade of adjustment to a new period of reforms and growth.
The first one is that during the early phases of development, when an economy is no more than a collection of fragmented markets and regions, the establishment of government institutions, the construction of infrastructure, and the direct participation of the government in some areas of the economy are not only desirable but indispensable preconditions for the growth process.
The second principle is more in line with the recent theories of endogenous economic growth (see Scott, 1991, Lucas 1988; and Uzawa 1965).
It reflects the motion that the opening up of investment opportunities through changes in the environment where individuals works save and invest, both creates and reveals new investment opportunities. In Hirschman’s example, once the difficult parts of the puzzle have been solved, the remaining pieces begin to fall into place almost automatically.
What this means for the role of the government in economic development is that after an initial period of protection and government intervention, growth no longer respond as strongly to further involvement as it did during the very first stages of industrialization.
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