Economic empowerment and performance: Strategies towards indigenisation/black economic empowerment and the performance of such enterprises in Nigeria and South Africa, since the early 1970s to 2002

Abstract

In the course of the drive towards decolonisation, African leaders often emphasised the need for political and economic independence from colonial control. Austen even disregards decolonisation as a turning point in the history of Africa or "an event creating a new economic situation but rather treats it "as a chronological marker for long-term change in the relationship between African Economies and the international system". A basic condition for the achievement of independence was the creation of an independent economy by implementing measures to transfer ownership of resources and enterprises into the hands of citizens, to establish basic industrialisation and control of trade. Extensive debates developed after independence on the capacity of the newly independent nations to extend capitalist economic development and develop relative economic independence. Much of the debate focussed on the capacity of the indigenous people to facilitate such economic development. It was argued that structural constraints imposed by the world economic system might impair such development. On the other hand it was also argued that the development of the economy of the newly independent states depended much less on the impact of the world-economic system than on the internal micro-level factors within the new states.