Structural Adjustment Programme Essay

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THE EFFECTS OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS(SAPs) IN AFRICA: CASE STUDY ZAMBIA
Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) refer to a couple of economic policies and institutional measure configured to resolve macroeconomic difficulties in developing countries by lessening government involvement in the economy, righting the borrowing country’s deficits and liberalizing the country’s economy to the global market. These programs which included policies aimed at attaining economic growth, were the brainchild of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but were later, adopted by other major international financial institutions (Logan and Mengisteab, 1993).
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund offered Loans for example …show more content…

To prepare for this phase key laws were reformed to drive the liberalization of the economy. All forms of subsides and price controls were removed, interest and foreign exchange rates deregulated and import controls regulations eliminated. Additionally custom duties, tariffs, corporate taxes and capital allowances were reduced to encourage foreign direct investment (Hunt, Young and Loxley, 1992).
One of the main policies of SAPs was privatization of government owned enterprises proved disastrous for Zambia’s manufacturing sector. The lowering of tariffs on textile products and particularly of all tariffs on second-hand clothes, led to large increases in imports of cheap second-hand clothing from industrialized countries. The Zambian textile industry thus could not compete with these imports and sector has almost vanished. In 1991 there were more than 140 textile manufacturing firms in1991, but this had fallen to just 8 by 2002 (Situmbeko and Zulu, …show more content…

Firstly after liberalization of the market there was elimination of subsidies on agricultural inputs like fertilizers hence increasing the prices of foodstuffs especially maize which is a staple food in Zambia. A case in point was the price of maize meal doubled five times over a period of two years. For example in 1988 the price of a 90kg bag of maize was going for Kwacha 125 to Kwacha 284 in 1990 eventually shooting to Kwacha 1200. The removal of maize subsidies a food staple resulted in one of the bloodiest food riots in Zambia in 1986 (Geisler,

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