This was a very popular question among the candidates and many of those who attempted it scored high marks.
Such candidates wrote some of the following as characteristics of manufacturing industries in Tropical African countries:
- concentrated in towns;
- mainly import substituting;
- depend on imported machinery/technology;
- mainly light industries;
- labour intensive;
- production of consumer goods;
- products mainly consumed internally;
- mainly small scale industries;
- some raw materials are imported;
- dominated by foreign multinational companies;
The problems of manufacturing industries in Nigeria which were outlined included:
- inadequate capital;
- poor management;
- shortage of raw materials;
- poor infrastructure;
- political instability;
- law purchasing power;
- shortage of skilled labour;
- inadequate power supply;
- high cost of spare parts;
- restriction of foreign exchange;
- high taxation;
- labour unrest;
- poor quality industrial labour.
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