SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Spatio-Temporal Auditing (STA) entails a critical examination of performance of economic policies and development programmes within a defined context, space and time. This paper employs the STA to critique Nigeria’s industrial policies (IPs) and entrepreneurship development interventions (EDIs) from 1946 to 2013 with a view to answering the salient question: Has Nigeria’s industrial policies and entrepreneurship interventions impacted on technological progress (TP), wealth creation (WC) and employment generation (EG) in the economy? The authors sourced the required qualitative data from Nigeria’s industrial policy documents, development working papers, journal articles and relevant online resources on the subject. The data were subjected to content analysis (CA) and thematic analysis (TA) from which objective conclusions were made. The key conclusion from the paper is that Nigeria’s development policies targeted at industrial and entrepreneurship development have not produced the desirable and measurable performance results; rather they put Nigeria into huge economic deficits. The paper supports the argument for the adoption of a Sustainable Development Triangle (SWT) with a collaborative synergy from Government agencies, Corporations and Small Entrepreneurs in the nation’s developmental process. The proposed SDT, unlike previous development policies is sustainable and unlikely to generate a dependency culture, a critical factor for policy failure in Nigeria.