Enterprise zones in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evolution, rationalization, processes evaluation and outcomes

Abstract

The history and development of Enterprise Zones, as both a deliberate government policy of integrating the economies of Sub-Saharan African into the global stream and as a trade policy instrument of readjustments and limited resource acquisition option, have different and varied intendments for the countries that implemented them. However, what seems evident from their current, and rather rapid proliferation, is that they soon became a preferred policy option, with significantly little evidence of improvements or changes in sub-regional market developments, employment, GDP or FDI. The objective of this paper is an attempt to answer some questions occasioned by the apparent failure of these initiatives: the reasons for the proliferate establishment; reasons or factors that explain the seeming disparate applications and outcome. This will be achieved through an evaluation of selected countries' data and determining the success factors and failures of the Enterprise Zones' experiment. The evaluation of data and case review indicate an inconclusive, mixed bag of outcomes that could be explained by disparate sub-regional processes' application, national infrastructural disparities and policies' inconsistencies. Finally, it is hoped that this exercise offers fresh insights into the dynamics of implementation, as well as identify a policy or implementation lapses, make recommendations, and possible new areas of research.