Industrial policy and monopoly capitalism in Nigeria: lessons from the Dangote Business Conglomerate

At the example of the Dangote conglomerate, this article investigates why pockets of efficiency formed in the Nigerian manufacturing sector and why, at the same time, structural transformation remained limited across the economy as a whole. We argue that expansion of, in this case domestic, markets can discipline learning. Yet emerging monopoly capitalism carries in it the fruit of fragile accumulation to the extent that price setting power, tax evasion and control over wages undermines the growth of purchasing power. Under expanding markets, Dangote's monopoly position and growing profits followed from productive investment, but these were not passed down at the same rate into wages. What is more, the difficulties in taxing the conglomerate has undercut the state's resources available for pro-poor redistribution.