The public sector is the machinery used by the state to execute plans, policies and programmes.
Quest to make things better establish certain institutions with a mandate to realize targeted objectives and essentially undertake some core activities.
The exercise is not peculiar to developing countries as the developed world grappled with it in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In response to the demands of economic and environmental dynamics, nations strive to cope with or manage change.
In developing countries such as Nigeria with an urgent and pressing need to bring about rapid socio-economic development.
Public sector reforms have become imperative as public administration is only effective to the extent that it can respond swiftly and efficiently to the ever-changing demands in its environment.
Interestingly, public sector reforms have primarily been driven by the quest to strengthen or enhance the capacity of public administration to achieve national development goals.
Nevertheless, since Nigeria attained independence in 1960, various administrative reforms have been carried out by previous national governments with the aim of increasing the administrative capacity of the public sector to implement development programmes and achieve national development goals.
Unfortunately, public sector reform is utilized as the indispensable instrument of change and development in developing countries such as Nigeria, with the urgent and pressing need to bring about rapid fundamental socioeconomic transformation.
Recall that public sector reform has dominated policy design and actions and at times, especially as its agenda encapsulated in the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the 1980s and 1990s.
Consequently, in 1999, Nigeria returned to holistic public service reform after a leave between 1993 and 1998.
These reforms were well received locally and internationally because they were done at the instance of a democratic dispensation.
Yet again, after decades of public sector reforms in Nigeria, the outputs and impacts have elicited varying reactions and evaluations.
A good example of how public reforms revive one of Nigeria’s economic sub sectors was the period of importance of sugar in the Nigerian economy
Where two integrated sugar plants at Bacita in Kwara state and Numan in Adamawa state were established in 1961 and 1977 respectively; following the adoption of the import substitution industrialization policy in the country (International Sugar Year Book 1978).
The aims were to encourage technological development, reduce the volume of imports and encourage foreign exchange savings by producing locally some of the imported consumer goods.
The two sugar plants had a combined installed capacity of 105,000 tonnes per annum or less than 10% of the country’s annual requirement (National Sugar Development Council Document, 2010).
Hence, happening around the nation’s sugar sub-sector toward self-sufficiency cannot be over-emphasizes.
Chiefly, because they need to understand the dwindling problem in the sugar sub-sector industry.
For instance, the National Sugar Development Council Document (NSDC) was mandated to develop strategies that would promote local production of sugar such that 70% of the country’s sugar requirement would be met by domestic production.
The sugar sub-sector in the Nigerian economy has contributed to the development of the nation as a whole.
The importance of the sub-sector is derived from its contribution to employment and food self-sufficiency and its impact on the rural economy in the country.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the demand for direct household consumption of sugar remains firm; while the soft drink production alone accounts for about half of the total industrial sugar usage in Nigeria.
Even though concerns are raised about consumption of sugar, which can be considered abuse of its, just as we have seen in the abuse of drugs.
Yet, sugar is an important food item and also a critical raw material in food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.
Hence, it is against this backdrop that the Public Sector Reform as Engine for Growth: A Case for Revival Sugar Sector in Nigeria
An extent to ensure economic self-sufficiency in sugar production in Nigeria via public sector reforms.
