Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access

In the OIC Member Countries

The voice and accountability indictor is meant to capture perceptions about whether a

country’s citizens can participate freely in public discourse and participate in choosing

their government. The rule of law indicator reflects perceptions of whether society’s rules

are applied equally and whether property rights and individuals’ rights are protected by

courts and the police. The regulatory quality indicator has to do with perceptions that the

government can implement sound policies that promote private sector development.

Government effectiveness relates to perceptions about the government’s ability to deliver

public services and formulate and execute sound policies. Fiduciary stewardship captures

perceptions about the government’s ability to safeguard public resources and to block

efforts to use public position for private gain.

As the figure shows, in 2012 the government was perceived to have significantly improved

regulatory quality, the fiduciary stewardship, the rule of law, and government

effectiveness compared to 2002. Even with those improvements, however, Nigeria ranks

in the bottom 30 percent of the 218 countries covered by the Worldwide Governance

Indicators.

Public sector investment in agriculture is low and declining. Just 3 percent of public

spending went to agriculture on average between 2006 and 2012, well below the 10

percent goal set by African leaders in the Maputo Agreement.

Budgetary allocations by

state governments are lower still—and can reasonably be considered indicative of the

relatively low priority that public officials assign to agriculture, despite its proportionately

large contribution to overall GDP. The ratio of public expenditure on agriculture to the

sector’s share of GDP between 2005 and 2012 was 0.04, whereas a ratio of 1 would

indicate that public spending is commensurate with agriculture’s contribution to the

country’s economy.

Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi (2009).

World Bank (2014f).

FIGURE 17: GOVERNANCE INDICATORS FOR NIGERIA, 2002 AND 2012

Source:

Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank 2014i).