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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
The ever-increasing African aspirations for development have been reflected in the many plan documents produced during the last decade. But the growth of government resources – or public savings, defined as the excess of current revenue over current expenditure ’ has lagged very much behind. In consequence, resort is increasingly being made to other sources of funds.
Page 140 note 1 United Nations, ‘Problems and Policies of Economic Development: an appraisal of recent experience’, in World Economic Survey. Part One. 1967 (New York, 1968), p. 80.Google Scholar
Page 140 note 2 Among the more important of these reasons are the relatively small taxable base as reflected in the very low income per capita, as well as the defective, outmoded, and inefficient tax machinery which provides scope for widespread evasion.
Page 140 note 3 For an articulate support of this view, see Okigbo, P. N. C., ‘Savings and Investment through Government Budgets’, in Krivine, David (ed.), Fiscal and Monetary Problems in Developing States (New York, 1967), pp. 273–84.Google Scholar See also United Nations, loc. cit. pp. 82–5.
Page 140 note 4 There exists not only the problem of strong political opposition to either cuts in public spending or increases in tax rates, but also the question of how far tax rates can be raised without damaging incentives or showing diminishing marginal yields.
Page 140 note 5 Some insights into the nature of this controversy will be found in Ahmad, Naseem, Deficit Financing, Inflation and Capital Formation: the Ghanaian experience (Munich, 1970).Google Scholar
Page 141 note 1 Helleiner, G. K., ‘The Fiscal Role of the Marketing Boards in Nigeria's Economic Development, 1947–61’, in The Economic Journal (London), LXXIV, 295, 09 1964, pp. 582–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The surpluses of these marketing boards in the period 1947–54 exceeded the total public revenue from each of the two major sources of taxation, i.e. import and export duties.
Page 141 note 2 Lewis, W. Arthur, Reflections on Nigeria's Economic Growth (Paris, 1967), p. 60.Google Scholar
Page 141 note 3 Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, National Development Plan Progress Report, 1964 (Lagos, 1965), pp. 28–9.Google Scholar
Page 144 note 1 Central Bank of Nigeria, Annual Report…for the Year ended 31st December 1965, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar
Page 146 note 1 Ekukinam, A. E., ‘Monetary and Banking Policy’, in Conference on National Reconctruction and Development in Nigeria (Lagos, 1969), mimeographed, p. 27.Google Scholar
Page 146 note 2 Central Bank of Nigeria, Annual Report…for the Year ended 31st December 1965 and 1966, p. 15 and pp. 13–14,Google Scholar respectively.
Page 146 note 3 In 1967 the Central Bank fiduciary issue (holdings of government securities as backing for demand liabilities) was raised from 33.5 to 50 per Cent. Furthermore, the Treasury Bill Act was amended on three occasions to permit an increase in the ceiling on the ratio of treasury bills outstanding to the Government's estimated current revenue. The ratio was raised from 50 per cent to 85, 100, and 150 per Cent in 1968, 1969, and 1970, respectively. Finally, the introduction of treasury certificates towards the end of 1968 provided the Government with an additional medium of borrowing. Cf. the annual reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria for the years 1968–70.
