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NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE GENDER GAP IN NIGERIA, 

LESSONS FROM THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE 

 

BY 

 

AMAKA THERESA ORIAKU EMORDI, PhD 

Email emordiamaka@gmail.com , Phone +234 0803 573 7410 

 

   

ABSTRACT 

At independence from Britain in 1957, the Malaysian economy was predominantly 

mining and agriculturally based.  The government started a transition towards a more 

multi-sector economy with the formation of the Malaysian 1st-8th Development Plans 

from 1963. The Development Plans encouraged improved women’s education, 

employment, and engagement in politics amongst others. Compared to Nigeria where 

there is no special place for women in Nigerian’s development plans. Consequently, adult 

literacy rate for women in Malaysia rose from 74% in 1990 to 83 in 2000. By occupation, 

women are spread across all spheres of life endeavours. Women represent 41% of all 

manufacturing employees, 40% of all finance, insurance, real estate and business 

services, 39% of wholesale and retail trade, hotel and restaurant employees. This paper 

used qualitative research design to interrogate the development plans of Nigeria and 

Malaysia and applied modernization theory of development to explain modernization 

processes of Nigeria and Malaysia since independence. In Malaysia, women in political 

parties were included in the higher level public decision-making bodies against Nigeria 

where women are relegated to women’s wing. The work explained that politically, in 

Malaysia, the participation of women in politics was advanced because the government 

engaged women as view women veritable partners in development compare to Nigeria 

where the percentage of women in politics is infinitesimal compared to that of men. The 

paper argues that the sluggish development experienced by Nigerian compared to 

Malaysia is due to gender gap and near exclusion of women in Nigerian’s development 

plans. The active involvement of women in all facets of governance and development 

has been seen as a veritable tool for political development and nation-building.  

Keyword National, development Nigeria Gender lessons   

 

INTRODUCTION 

Development theory is a conglomeration or collection of theories about how desirable 

change in society is best achieved. Such theories draw on a variety of social science 

disciplines and approaches. Depending on which theory that is being looked at, there are 

different explanations for the process of development and their inequalities. 

Development theories can be regarded as a set of ostensibly logical propositions, which 

aim to explain how development has occurred in the past and/or how it should occur in 

mailto:emordiamaka@gmail.com


 

 

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the future, this explanation has been used both develop and developing countries of the 

world to explain development. 

 

Development theories can either be normative, that is, they can aim to explain how 

development has occurred in the past and can generalize about what should happen or be 

the case in the ideal world or positive in the sense of dealing with what has generally 

been in the past. (Hettne 1995) Macmuarry (1955) argues that a theory can be a body of 

knowledge or collective vision.  Thomas (2007) theorized how to develop this body of 

knowledge and in (2008) explained that development economics is a branch of 

economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income 

countries. Stressing that its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic 

development, economic growth, and structural change but also on improving the 

potential for the mass of the population and engenders economic growth, for example, 

through health, education and workplace conditions and through the public or private 

channel (Khun 2008).  Cairncross (1961) pointed out that development economics 

involves the creation of theories and methods that aid in the determination of policies 

and practices and can be implemented at either the domestic or international level 

(Cairncross 1961). This may involve restructuring market incentives by using 

mathematical methods such as inter-temporal optimization for project analysis, or it may 

involve a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. There are however, other 

views to development aside from the economic perspective that can explain different 

development agendas which will reflect different goals and objectives, social, economic, 

political, cultural, ethical, moral and even religious. 

 

influences of development. Brundtland (1997) for instance defined development that can 

endure from generation to generation as sustainable development. By sustainability of 

development, they refer to that kind of development that meets the needs of the present 

without compromising the need for the future generation to meet their own needs. They 

argue that needs change, so it is unlikely that those of the future generation will be the 

same as those of the present generation. This further implies that development itself 

contributes to needs and thereby helping to define the needs and development direction 

differently for each generation and for different cultures. (Brundtland 1997). 

Development also have strategies which Hettne (2005) defined as the practical paths to 

development which may be pursued by international agencies or states in both 

developing and developed worlds, non-governmental organizations and community-

based organizations or individuals, in an effort to stimulate change . Arguing, that 

development strategy is an effort to change existing economic and social structures and 

institutions in order to find enduring solutions to the problems facing decision makers 

since development strategy implies an actor normally the state. 

 



 

 

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Scientists such as David Apter (1986), on the political system and history of 

democracy;  Seymour Lipset  (1959),  maintained that economic development leads to 

social changes which tend to lead to democracy. They explained development using 

modernization theory. Modernization theory analysed development as the processes in 

which modernization in societies take place. The theory looks at which aspects of 

countries are beneficial and which constitute obstacles to economic development. The 

idea is that development assistance targeted at those particular aspects can lead to the 

modernization of 'traditional' or 'backward' societies. Modernization theory observes 

traditions and pre-existing institutions of so-called "primitive" societies as obstacles to 

modern economic growth. Modernization which is forced from outside upon a society 

might induce violent and radical change.  

 

However, while modernization theory explained modernization as a process of 

transforming from traditional to modernism, structuralism theorists like Rostow (1960) 

viewed development from the structural aspects which impede the economic growth of 

developing countries. For structuralism, the unit of analysis is the transformation of a 

country’s economy from, mainly, subsistence agriculture to a modern, urbanized 

manufacturing and service economy. To them, policy prescriptions resulting from 

structuralist thinking would include major government intervention in the economy to 

fuel the industrial sector, known as import substitution industrialization (ISI). Rostow 

(1960) supports the structuralism argument and maintained that development of the 

developing country can be enhanced through ISI import substitution industrialization. 

Arguing that structural transformation of the developing country is pursued in order to 

create an economy which in the end enjoys self-sustaining growth. This can only be 

reached by ending the reliance of the underdeveloped country on exports of primary 

goods (agricultural and mining products) and pursuing inward-oriented development by 

shielding the domestic economy from that of the developed economies. Stressing that 

trade with advanced economies is should be minimized through the erection of all kinds 

of trade barriers and an overvaluation of the domestic exchange rate; in this way, the 

production of domestic substitutes of formerly imported industrial products is 

encouraged. 

 

The logic of the strategy rests on the infant industry argument, which states that young 

industries initially do not have the economies of scale and experience to be able to 

compete with foreign competitors and thus need to be protected until they are able to 

compete in the free market. Proponents of basic needs have argued that elimination of 

absolute poverty is a good way to make the people active in society so that they can 

provide labour more easily and act as consumers and savers. The structuralists argue that 

the only way Third World countries can develop is through action by the state. Third 

world countries have to push industrialization and have to reduce their dependency on 

trade with the first World, and trade among themselves. 



 

 

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On the other hand, dependency theory which is essentially a follow up of structuralism 

thinking, shares many of structuralism core ideas. The point of divergence between the 

structuralists and the dependency theorist is that structuralists did not consider that 

development would be possible at all unless a strategy of delinking and rigorous ISI was 

pursued; dependency thinking could allow development with external links with the 

developed parts of the globe. Dependency thinking starts from the notion that resources 

flow from the ‘periphery’ of poor and underdeveloped states to a ‘core’ of wealthy 

countries, which leads to accumulation of wealth in the rich states at the expense of the 

poor states. Contrary to modernization theory, dependency theory states that not all 

society’s progress through similar stages of development. To them, periphery states have 

unique features, structures and institutions of their own and are considered weaker with 

regards to the world market economy, while the developed nations have never been in 

this colonized position in the past. Dependency theorists argue that underdeveloped 

countries remain economically vulnerable unless they reduce their connections to the 

world market. Dependency theory states that poor nations provide natural resources and 

cheap labour for developed nations without which the developed nations could not have 

the standard of living which they enjoy. When underdeveloped countries try to remove 

the Core's influence, the developed countries hinder their attempts to keep control. This 

means that poverty of developing nations is not the result of the disintegration of these 

countries in the world system but because of the way in which they are integrated into 

this system. 

 

The basic needs model was introduced by the international labour organization in 1976, 

mainly in reaction to prevalent modernization- and structuralism-inspired development 

approaches, which were not achieving satisfactory results in terms of poverty alleviation 

and combating inequality in developing countries. It tried to define an absolute minimum 

of resources necessary for long-term physical well-being. The poverty line which follows 

from this is the amount of income needed to satisfy those basic needs. The approach has 

been applied in the sphere of development assistance, to determine what a society needs 

for subsistence, and for poor population groups to rise above the poverty line. 

 

Again, Rostow on the linear stages of growth model accentuated that there are stages of 

growth model which is a well-known example of the linear stages of growth model today. 

In it, Rostow explained five stages through which developing countries had to pass to 

reach an advanced economy status: (1) Traditional society, (2) Preconditions for take-

off, (3) Take-off, (4) Drive to maturity, (5) Age of high mass consumption. He argued 

that economic development could be led by certain strong sectors; this is in contrast to 

Marxism which states that sectors should develop equally. According to Rostow’s model, 

a country needed to follow some rules of development to reach the take-off stage, to 

progress through the stages and to maintain the age of high consumption stage. 



 

 

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 This paper explained the developmental stages of Nigeria from her independence and 

compared them with Malaysian developmental stages. The paper examined the 

developmental strategies employed by both countries in their quest to move from 

traditional to modernised societies, from infant industries to manufacturing and services-

oriented industries and underscored the lessons Nigeria could learn from the industrial 

growth place of Malaysia today in the global world.  

  

DEVELOPMENT PLAN: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE 
Development plan in Nigeria can be classified into three eras. The First Development 

plan 1966-1968 implementation extended to 1969-70 due to the Nigerian civil war. One 

major employment promotion scheme in the First National Development Plan was the 

establishment of the National Manpower (NMB) in 1962 first national development Plan. 

The first national development plan 1966-68 aimed at and required cooperation between 

public and private sectors, and as expected between federal and regional governments. It 

also aimed at a high level or rate of development expected to supersede the colonial plan 

before it. Obiekeze and Obi (2004), reported that the plan which was expected to last for 

six years had a proposed total investment expenditure of about N2, 132 million. 

However, the subsequent crisis culminating in the thirty-month Nigerian Civil War 1967-

1970 punctured the implementation of this. Osifo-Whiskey 1997 in Okigbo argued that: 

in the 1st National development plan that each region's programs are like the others.  

  

Apart from the Nigerian Civil War (1966-1967) aborted 1st national development plan 

Nigeria had other developmental plan these include the second National Plan (1970-74) 

can be referred to as “Oil-boom development plan” because it coincided with the period 

that Nigeria made high earnings from the sale of crude oil and allied products having 

emerged from a devastating civil war and with lessons to learn (Ujo in Ugwu 

2009).  Third (1975-80) National development plan also fell within the ‘oil-boom’ years, 

and in that era was seen as the largest and the most ambitious ever launched (compared 

to the ones that preceded it. The plan aimed to achieve objectives such as to increase per 

capita income; even distribution of income; reduction in the level of unemployment; 

increasing the supply of high-level manpower, diversification of the economy; balanced 

development and indigenization of economic activities. The initial total expenditure for 

this plan was put at N30 billion over five years. (Osifo Whiskey 1987) The Fourth 

National Development according to Ijaiya and Usman (2000).  The Fourth National 

Development Plan (1981-85) like the ones before it reaffirmed the long-term national 

objectives of the preceding plan corroborated that this “was also launched simply to 

consolidate the third National Development Plans and with much more commitment to 

petroleum resources”. The industrial policy objectives of this plan were; promotion of 

export-oriented industries. 

 



 

 

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The Plan according to an Annual review of population law (1984) calls for the 

establishment of a benchmark for population censuses through the activities of a newly 

established National Population Commission. The Plan seeks a decline in the fertility 

rate through the voluntary use of family planning services and an increase in formal 

education. During the Plan period, the question of liberalizing the abortion law will be 

under consideration; the delivery of health care will be improved to strengthen the 

downward trend in child, infant, and maternal mortality and morbidity rates; efforts to 

prevent illegal immigration will be intensified; and the government will attempt to 

encourage trained and skilled personnel to remain in the country. To combat over 

urbanization, the government will also pursue a policy of integrated urban and rural 

development. 

  

The enhancement of local value-added through the development of small-scale 

industries, local sourcing of inputs; improving the efficiency of government-owned 

enterprises and acquisition of technical skills and development worth noting here is the 

Integrated Development Initiatives: Structural Adjustment Programme which Obikeze 

and Obi (2004) attempted to articulate their discourse on Structural Adjustment 

programme SAP under the caption of “Fifth National Development Plan”; Onah (2006) 

submitted with finality that “the idea of a fifth National Development Plan, mooted in 

late 1980 never materialized”. The launch of the purported plan was postponed twice in 

a row in 1987 and 1988. Instead of the plan were series of integrated Development 

Initiatives which Okoli and Ona (2002) referred to as rural development strategies such 

as Agricultural Development Scheme, National Accelerated Food Production 

Programme (NAFPP); and Directorate for Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). 

Again the Nigerian Rolling Plans 1990-1999 and Vision 2020 were also some of the 

national development initiatives of Nigeria in her quest for development. In this, Nigeria 

resorted to the use of (ad-hoc) short-term instruments for economic management and as 

Daggash (2008) asserted, the era of Rolling Plans (1990-1999) which he derisively 

tagged an era of the rolling stones that gathered no moss”. 

  

Daggash (2008) added that in a bid “to have a long-term National Vision on which 

development could be anchored, a bold attempt was made in 1996 to articulate a National 

vision document, the Nigeria Vision 2010. This development effort had the vision of 

transforming the Nigerian Nation by 2010 into “a united, industrious, caring and God 

fearing democratic society, committed to making the basic needs of life affordable for 

everyone and creating Africa’s leading economy (Ugwu 2009) The National Economic 

Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) offered Nigeria an opportunity to 

experiment with medium-term economic development plan from 2004 to 

2007. Onah (2006:46) posited that NEEDS focused on wealth creation, employment 

generation, poverty reduction and re-orientating values. These goals, he corroborated can 

be realized “by creating an environment in which business can thrive and the government 



 

 

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is redirected to providing basic services and people are empowered to take advantage of 

the opportunities which the plan will usher in. In all of these programs, the government 

failed to integrate the role of women and SMEs as active partners in development as is 

done in Malaysia. This can be adduced to be the undoing of the government in realizing 

the principles and ideas inherent in all the failed national development plans in Nigeria. 

 

MALAYSIAN DEVELOPMENT PLANS 
Malaysia, formerly known as Malaya, is regarded as one of the most successful examples 

of a multi-racial society. Chinese had migrated to Malaya when Portuguese captured 

Malaya in the sixteenth century. During the British colonial period, Malaysia witnessed 

a huge number of Chinese and Indian immigrants flocking into the country. Nature and 

living condition in the China Mainland and India had respectively become the pushing 

factor for them to leave the countries. Malaysian’s political stability and prosperity were 

seen as the pulling factor for their immigrants to seek for better prospects in Malaya. As 

such, the immigrants played an important role in influencing the changing lifestyle of the 

early inhabitants in Malaysia.  

  

Malaysia was an agricultural based economy mainly producing rubber and tin. The 

indigenous people including the Malays mostly lived in the rural areas and predominantly 

engaged in the agricultural sector. Thus, the natural segregation of the main ethnic groups 

based on geographical areas was clearly painted. The Chinese who mostly engaged in 

business activities had a relatively higher standard of living compared to the Malays and 

the Indians. After the 1957 independence, the country witnessed a disproportionate 

pattern of wealth distribution. The Chinese held a big chunk of the wealth compared to 

the other two main ethnic groups in the country. Poverty was largely prevalent among 

the Malays since the Malays occupied the rural area while the Indians are in the estates, 

and whereas the Chinese were concentrated in urban locations of the country. This 

situation reflected the differences in the incidence of poverty by race, particularly in 

Peninsular Malaysia. In all of these, women were highly marginal in all spheres of life 

endeavour and also poor uneducated  The role of entrepreneurship in economic 

development and poverty reduction especially in developing countries nations has been 

asserted in the literature. This is Galbraith (2008) argued that the economy of developing 

nations can be improved through entrepreneurship development. He, however, added that 

economic development is multidimensional; not only dependent on the traditional 

economic model of factor inputs but issues such as culture, gender, type of enterprises 

etc need be considered. (Cunha 2007). Considering the situation and economic disparity 

in Malay then the government decided to embark on national development agenda for 

the nation. The 1st national development plan was tagged New Economic Policy (NEP). 

Basically, the NEP plays a vital role in the history of both economy and politics in 

Malaysia today.   During the period of NEP, Malaysia had substantially reduced its 

poverty level and led to the growth of Malay‘s middle and business classes. Apart from 



 

 

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successfully achieving its objectives, the NEP did come up with various consequences 

which proved to be influential to the wellbeing of the country and people. 

 

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY OF MALAYSIA (NEP) 
The NEP was formulated and implemented in 1970 for the duration of 20 years. The 

main initiator of NEP was Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia’s second Prime Minister and was 

later taken further by the third and fourth Prime Ministers, Tun Hussein Onn and Dr 

Mahathir Mohammed. The NEP was implemented to attain two-pronged objectives. The 

first was to eradicate poverty in the country irrespective of race and gender. According 

to the NEP, the Bumiputra population was to be given 30% share in the modern sector 

of the economy in order to enhance their participation in the industrial sector and at the 

same time to raise their living standards. Furthermore, the NEP required the state to 

intervene in the economy for resources allocation and to control the business enterprises 

so that the objectives of the NEP could be achieved and to assist the Bumiputra in the 

areas. These are instances of the government initiatives to preserve the special privileges 

for the natives. Eventually, the government was to encourage the Malaysians and the 

indigenous people to participate in the economy so that their living standard could be 

raised. This indirectly opened up more opportunities for other races especially the 

Chinese to accumulate wealth (Mohamad, 1970). 

 

The NEP encouraged the development of manufacturing industries which like a vicious 

circle empowered women to venture in SMEs.  The influx of women into the workforce 

has been seen as one of the dominant global social trends during the past thirty years 

(Noor Rhanmah 2012), (Desjardin 2009). This is also seen in Malaysia’s development 

since political independence in 1957 and has emphasized steady economic growth, 

diversification of the economy, reduction of unemployment and improvement in income 

and wealth distribution (Jamilah 1994). The implementation of New Economic policy 

(NEP), during the Second Malaysian development Plan from 1971 -75 continued until 

1990 and induced rapid economic development in the last three decades (1970-2000). 

The major structural shift has been from the primary to the secondary sector especially 

in the manufacturing activities. Malaysian efforts in industrialization started with import 

substitution in the late 1950s and then switched to export-orientation in the late 1960s 

(Jamilah, 1994). The emphasis was on the development of resource-based and labour-

intensive industries in which Malaysia had a comparative advantage. The labour-

intensive industries were mainly textiles, garments, electronics, electrical products, and 

food processing. In all of these, the government encouraged the active involvement of 

women in all areas of the New Development Plan. 

 

Socio-economic factors, as mentioned, have, among others, contributed to this shift since 

the 1970s. It all began when Malaysia decided to transform from an agricultural to an 

industrial nation. Foreign direct investment and the setup of manufacturing and electronic 



 

 

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industries have further increased employment opportunities for women. The Malaysian 

culture has also been seen to shifted somewhat, accepting the participation of women in 

employment, to improve the economic status and quality of life of family units although 

they are also expected to play an equally important role as a wife, mother and family 

manager at home. In addition to socio-economic factors, political and legal factors have 

contributed to the increasing women’s participation in the Malaysian workforce. The 

government has always been supportive in developing the female workforce through its 

educational, economic and human resource policies to support the economic growth 

agenda. With higher educational attainments, women competed with the males in 

technical and nontechnical disciplines, covering all job scopes such as engineering, 

medicine, teaching, management, etc. The Employment Act 1955, in fact, has been 

revised to include special provisions for employers to comply, to consider the welfare of 

women in employment. For example, women at work may now apply for maternity leave 

at 28 weeks of pregnancy. Women have also been given a legal right to enjoy 60 days of 

paid maternity leave and a further 90 daAs at first April 2012 further provisions were 

included in sexual harassment matters to protect the dignity to protect the dignity of 

women at work. The government has even set up the Ministry of Women, family and 

community development to explicitly show the commitment and recognition of women’s 

significant role in the Malaysian society, apart from addressing specific issues peculiar 

to women as a human right. While these developments may be seen to be a strength as 

well as opportunity to sustain continued economic growth in Malaysia and they also 

helped to earn respect for women and women’s rights in an employment context. 

  

According to Ahmad (1998) before the 1970’s, most women in Malaysia, especially the 

Malaysian Muslims were homemakers. It was a cultural norm, particularly in the eastern 

society for women to stay at home and manage the family while husbands played the 

roles of breadwinners. Women’s role at home was seen to be noble, raising and nurturing 

children to be good citizens.  On several occasions, qualified women may have to 

sacrifice their careers for a better family life to reduce stress while trying to balance 

family life with work life. Some have personally declined promotion opportunities or in 

the worst scenario, they quit their jobs and find other options such as starting a home-

based business which allows them to look after their children while performing work 

commitments as their own bosses. With the proliferation of manufacturing industries and 

SMEs many women entered into SMEs and as bosses of their own business at least they 

do not have to face the challenges of being questioned by employers now and then when 

they have problems at home while managing children etc. 

  

MALAYSIAN ECONOMY AND WOMEN 
With the support of the government, quite a number of Malaysian women became 

involved in the economy. By 2013, the World Bank reports that 44 percent of women are 

part of formal labour force while men have a formal labour force participation rate of 56 



 

 

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percent in Malaysia. For nearly three decades the rate for women has stagnated between 

44 and 47 percent. In order to change this, the MWFCD has funded over 32 projects with 

over 87 million USD in an effort to help women overcome the barriers that they face in 

the formal labour market. However, the government is not the only stakeholder interested 

in empowering Malaysian women. There are many other contributors to this movement, 

such as grassroots organizations, international NGOs, and various private sector 

organizations. ys of extended unpaid leave to manage a new-born baby. 

 

Politically female representation has not increased as quickly as the other sectors 

mentioned; the percentage of female senators rose from 18.2 in 1990 to 25.8% in 2014. 

Female state legislature representation has increased from 3.4% in 1990 to 11.5% in 

2014. 2012, only 15% of women own their own businesses (MWFCD, 2014). However, 

there is potential for growth in this area, as the Malaysian government has begun to 

streamline the ease of doing business to benefit women in Malaysia. In fact, Malaysia 

ranks 18th in the 2015 Ease of Doing Business Report produced by the World Bank. 

Streamlining business measures will facilitate women starting businesses once other 

barriers are overcome. While educational opportunities have expanded and health care 

has improved. Politically, and by the law, Malaysia has a dual justice system. All 

Malaysian citizens are subject to federal law while Muslims are additional subject to 

sharia law. Both of these entities have a significant influence on gender and different sets 

of rights that are affordable to man and women. The federal government is actively 

attempting to implement mechanisms that empower women and protect their human 

rights. In part, the government understands that by empowering women and enabling 

them to be active participants in the formal labour force, they will benefit and the 

country’s overall economy and spur economic growth. In 1995, the Malaysian 

constitution amended Article 8(2) to bar gender-based discrimination. Other laws have 

also been created to grant women paid maternity leave and ensure fairness when facing 

divorce and inheritance issues 

 

Malaysia ratified CEDAW in 1995, with several reservations of articles that were in 

conflict with the provisions of Sharia law and Participation of Women in the Malaysian 

Labour Force, (MWFCD/UNDP, 2014). After attending the Beijing Platform for Action 

the same year, the Malaysian governments sought to not only eradicate gender-based 

discrimination but to also enact laws that protect women. There were also laws that 

directly opened space for women to join the labour force.  However, in terms of political 

representation, the number of women in parliament remains low at 10% since there was 

no quota in place to the advantaged of women in politics. (Roushdy 2015). 

  

  

 

 



 

 

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CONCLUSION 
Today, Malaysia is fast emerging as one of the worlds' most preferred business 

destinations. Malaysia attracts over 20 million tourists yearly to its economy, unlike 

Nigeria due to the experience of the military dictatorship which has derailed the country’s 

momentum towards greater progress and prosperity. Nigeria like Malaysia hopes that by 

2020 both countries would be able to achieve the goals of vision 2020. That shows the 

importance Malaysia pays great attention to education and human resources development 

and training. Consequently, Malaysia spends lion share of the budget in educating the 

people. Malaysia makes a lot of investment in human resources. The other thing is that 

they have been able to build necessary infrastructure which would help to propel the 

economy, unlike Nigeria where the industries are suffering because of bad roads, poor 

supply of electricity, inadequate potable water and other infrastructure that drive 

development. Malaysia also encourages the growth of the SMEs through incentives and 

training this Nigeria is yet to realize and pursue. Malaysia has long recognized SMEs are 

the engine of growth. There is so much that the government can do before the 

multinational can come to the country to invest.  Nigeria need to empower private sector, 

and in the case of Malaysia, 99% of establishments belong to the SMEs and there are 

many agencies providing assistance to SMEs in the areas incentives and training with the 

intention that if the SMEs prosper it then means so much in terms of export for the 

country, employment of youths as well as helping the country register higher growth rate. 

In Malaysia, the SMEs are doing a lot in bridging the linkages between industries 

including the multinationals. They are actually very important and you cannot hope to 

have economic prosperity and stability without paying attention to SMEs. Many SMEs 

are owned by women especially women who find it difficult to manage paid employment 

and the family responsibilities. 

  

SMEs empower the private sector and, in the case Malaysia, 99% of private 

establishment belongs to the SMEs and Malaysia has agencies providing assistance to 

SMEs in terms of incentives and training. Malaysia, believe that if the SMEs prosper, 

then it means so much export for the country, employment of youths as well as helping 

the country register higher growth rate.  SMEs serve as the linkages between the 

industries including the multinationals and the government. Another unique thing about 

Malaysia is that it never compromised on good quality products. When it comes to 

producing quality products, what is vision and inspiration that drives Nigeria culture of 

quality in Nigerian’s economy? When Malaysia got independence in 1957 they realized 

that with a population of about 7million they knew that they do not have a big domestic 

market, so they need to sell abroad and to do that your product must have quality, 

knowing that once people know that your product is of good quality they will not mind 

to pay more for your goods, but if your goods don does not have quality they think your 

products are bad and as such, they would not patronize them. In this stretch, it makes 



 

 

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sense to do a lot to improve your product’s quality. This means that you will continue to 

improve and do a lot of innovation on your products.  

  

In Nigeria prices of a hotel accommodation and other products that promote economic 

growth are very high when compared to what is obtainable in Malaysia. Malaysia, like 

Nigeria, is blessed are blessed with a lot of resources, but Malaysia, unlike Nigeria. 

Nigeria needs to keep the prices of goods and services low bearing in mind that they are 

competing with Singapore, China, and India which also produce very good quality 

products at very low prices. For instance, in Nigeria, five-star hotels cost well over two 

hundred dollars but in  Malaysia, you do not have to stay in a five-star hotel which cost 

a hundred dollars to get good services because of there so many three or four-star hotels 

that can provide very good services. Malaysia does not want have customers once but 

again and again, whether to visit the country, to stay, to get medical attention .that way 

the country’s GDP continued to grow. 

 

However, for Nigeria to consolidate these economic gains and move higher in 

the frontlines of growth and development, it must deepen reforms that improve human 

capital, promote high-quality public infrastructure and encourage competition (Sanusi, 

2010). The pillars to sustain this consolidation must include a firm fiscal policy, 

transparent fiscal operations, development-oriented monetary and exchange rate policies, 

strengthening of the financial sector and strict adherence to the rule-of-law and respect 

for the sanctity of contract, as well as commitment to fighting corruption and corrupt 

practices. In all of these, Nigeria has the opportunity for progress. We must break away 

from the past to deliver a new Nigeria that the future generations of Nigerians would be 

proud of. Our electoral process must not only be credible but must be seen to be credible, 

since robust economic performance necessarily requires a robust political environment 

to happen. 

  

LESSONS 
From all Nigerian’s national development plans the performance indicators/indices 

revealed negative growth in major sectors of the economy in 1985. The strategies that 

were ushered in grossly affected sourcing of loans and doing business with financial 

institutions, the manufacturing, and other sectors could not survive, as the economy was 

wobbling, unemployment and poverty rates increased as a result of this policy option. It 

can, therefore, be persuasively argued that the Nigerian governing elite started the march 

towards economic regression from the period as a result of fiscal and financial 

indiscipline. Again in 1970-74 plan periods in Nigeria was expected to fully participate 

in the private sector which witnessed the enactment in 1972 of the Nigerian Enterprises 

Promotion Decree and meant to encourage certain companies and increase Nigerian 

participation from 40% to 60% ownership. 

  



 

 

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Lessons for Nigeria from the Malaysia experience also include the fact Nigeria and 

Malaysia share common historical antecedents, gained their independence from British 

rule yet Malaysia is industrialized and Nigeria is yet to be, therefore, Nigeria need to 

borrow industrialization strategies from Malaysia. The federal system of government is 

the bicameral legislature and the regions are inhabited by different racial and ethnic 

nationalities Although, Nigeria has changed from bicameral to the presidential system. 

Both economies were relatively rich in resource. At independence, Malaysia in 1957 

and Nigeria in 1960 was leading exporters of primary products because basically the 

climate in the countries is tropical. A comparison of Malaysia and Nigeria’s growth 

record shows divergence in growth rates and different structural changes to the 

economy. 

  

Strategies implored by the government include industrialization and active engagement 

of women in nation building.  Nigeria needs to adopt Development Plan that is women-

friendly and close the gender gap for Nigeria to be developed and build resilience. More 

women need to come on board in Nigerian’s quest to build economically rotund and 

politically viral nation as Malaysia. Malaysia, on average has grown at a faster rate than 

Nigeria. In contrast to Malaysia’s post-independent experience, political instability was 

more pronounced in Nigeria. The military has ruled for 25 out of its 50 years as an 

independent nation, while in Malaysia there was, relatively, political stability and 

continuity. The two countries have adopted almost the same ideology in their 

developmental efforts, while Malaysia plans and moves vigorously towards the 

attainment of its vision of becoming an advanced economy in 2020. Nigeria in its Vision 

2020 wishes to become one of the 20 most industrialized economies by the year 2020, 

not much yet has been seen in this direction. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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