constitute a major problem in any investment promotional program and will need greater recognition and financial support by both Federal and Regional Governments in their improvement.

Hotels outside of Lagos at present cannot easily be perceived as presenting opportunities for profitable private investment, if the hotels are to be maintained along western standards. The principal reason is the inability or unwillingness of the Nigerian to pay high rates and the very limited travel being done by nonresi

dent businessmen or tourists. Lagos, however, while having a number of hotels, would appear seriously in need of additional modern facili ties, and the volume of business traffic here should make worthwhile an investigation of investment possibilities in hotels.

Certainly, from a long-term point of view, as Nigeria's economy progresses, much more commercial internal travel will ensue and the need for improved lodging facilities for transients will become more pressing; prospects for pri vate investment in this field should improve.

Relations

LABOR FORCE

The only available data on the occupational distribution of the entire African population is provided in the 1952-53 census of population. Of a total population of 31,500,000, the working population was placed at 14,800,000, of which 8,253,000 were males and 6,627,000, females.

Occupational Distribution

On the basis of occupation, this working force was distributed as follows: Agriculture and fishing-6,469,000 males and 5,188,000 females; trading and clerical-492,000 males and 1,439,000 females; crafts-508,000 males only; administrative, professional, and technical-231,000 males only; and other occupations-584,000 males only. The overwhelming proportion of manpower is devoted to agriculture, and women are almost entirely confined to agricultural, trading, and clerical activities. Since agriculture is a peasant farming activity and much of it represents a combination of subsistence production and production for exchange, it is not possible to relate occupational data to the subsistence and money sectors of the economy separately.

It has been estimated that the total gainfully employed labor force is not in excess of 2 percent of the total population.

Insofar as concerns gainful employment for wages, statistics are available only for those companies or industries submitting returns to the Federal Department of Labor. These data, covering 227 employers in the principal industries or services, give a total of 253,073 workers as of June 30, 1954, of whom 68,000 were employed in agricultural plantations and forestry, the remaining numbers about evenly employed in mining, construction, transport, and Government services as follows:

Employment Characteristics

With the exception of workers regularly employed in Government and certain other activities, there does not exist a permanently employed labor force, as such, in Nigeria. Almost all laborers have continuing ties to their farms or landholdings, and during the planting and harvesting season even men skilled in such activities as carpentry, blacksmithing, and painting leave their work to return to agricultural pursuits, presenting themselves for employment again when work in the farm is completed.

Another characteristic of Nigerian labor is its mobility, and it is not unusual to find laborers traveling great distances in search of gainful employment in some activity or industry. Floating labor is particularly attracted to the cocoagrowing areas of the Western Region. For example, during crop periods, firms and contractors engaged in construction and road work often have great difficulty in holding their labor. Except for this, however, the supply of unskilled labor is generally adequate. Due to the Nigerian's alternative occupation in subsistence farming, there is little unemployment in any overt sense, although certain underemployment may be said to exist in the sense that

large pools of working capabilities are going untapped.

Regional data on employment are not available. In Lagos, there has been a steady increase in the numbers employed, particularly in the building and civil engineering trades and in light industry. There are no shortages of unskilled workers in Lagos, but skilled or semiskilled tradesmen are at a premium.

The density of population in the Eastern Region coupled with pressure for available land has made the Eastern Region a net exporter of labor. Many go to the Western Region as petty traders or as employees on the rubber and timber plantations of Benin and Delta Provinces. Residence is not usually permanent and the workers apparently feel an obligation to return home periodically with a part of their earnings. In the Northern Region there is a seasonal migration southwards from Sokoto; during the dry season, workers migrate to the Middle Zone, the Plateau mines, and the cocoagrowing areas of the Western Region. In the past there has been a movement of skilled workers from the East to the North, but this movement is diminishing due to the Northern Regional Government's policy of implementing the "northernization" of jobs, particularly in the civil service. Relatively little movement of labor from the Western Region to other Regions takes place because of the comparative prosperity of the Region and the absence of population pressure.

The shortage of skilled craftsmen is acute throughout Nigeria, and to meet this problem there is evident a great interest and increase in the number of private training schemes throughout the country. The petroleum companies, for example, have schemes for training personnel in gasoline sales and servicing. A mining school providing a 5-year course is run by the Nigerian Coal Corporation at Enugu and many large private concerns have apprenticeship schemes. The UAC has centers for instruction of apprentices and technical staff at Burutu, Sapele, and Lagos, and African managerial staffs also are regularly brought to the United Kingdom by the company for special training. In addition, significant strides have been made by UAC and other private companies in Nigeria to establish social welfare facilities for their employees, including medical services.

Government employment exchanges exist in Lagos, Jos, Sapele, Ibadan, and Enugu. Ibadan is primarily concerned with juvenile advisory and placement services for those leaving or finishing school. Registration at these exchanges is voluntary, and many employers engage labor

directly. All Federal departments engage their staff through these employment exchanges.

WAGES

Non-Africans are not employed generally in industrial occupations as craftsmen, artisans, or other tradesmen; comparison of wage rates between Africans and Europeans becomes academic. In the higher salary groups, in the professions, and in Government administration, salaries are on the same level. This is true also of the other senior salary groups with the exception of Europeans and other expatriates who receive an inducement allowance of about 20 percent on their salaries. Wages of most industrial workers are rated by the day although wages are almost exclusively paid monthly.

Wages for general laborers and for semiskilled workers are rated roughly on an area basis: Provincial capitals, urban areas, and country areas. These were fixed until recently by means of Provincial Wage Boards, which were advisory bodies with Government, nonGovernment, and employee (including trade union) representation. With the new Constitution, however, Regional Governments have adopted various methods of deciding wage rates for their own employees: Northern Region and the Southern Cameroons Governments have continued with the Provincial Wage Boards; the Eastern Region Government has an Industrial Council; the Western Region Government has adopted a uniform daily rate for general laborers and is considering the proper form of negotiation for the future. The Federal Government negotiates rates and conditions of service of its employees in all the Regions through a Federal Industrial Council.

A statutory minimum wage does not apply generally throughout Nigeria, but legal minimum wages have been established in certain industries in Lagos and for the tin-mining area of Plateau Province. In addition to tin and columbite mining, the industries are printing, retail trade, tailoring, stevedore and dock labor, motor industry, building and civil engineering, and the catering trade. These minimum wages have been implemented in accordance with chapter XIII of the Labor Code, which authorizes the Federal Government to fix minimums in any occupation where wages are unreasonably low (see section on Labor Legislation).

Wage rates have been steadily increasing in the postwar years. The latest general wage adjustments by the Federal and Regional Governments were made in October and November 1954 and are still in effect. Minimum daily wage

Regional Governments. Daily rated employees in the service of the Federal, Northern Region, and Southern Cameroons Governments have wages varying by areas, being highest in the larger towns. The Eastern and Western Region Governments, on the other hand, pay flat rates throughout their Regions. Wages paid by the Northern Region Government are lower than those paid by the Federal, being 3s. Od. minimum in Kaduna for general labor by the Northern Region Government as compared with 3s. 6d. by the Federal Government. In the Eastern Region, the flat minimum rates are a few pence higher than the Federal rate in Port Harcourt, and the Western Region pays a minimum rate of 5s. which compares quite favorably with the Federal rates of 4s. 8d. in Lagos and 4s. 11d. in Ibadan.

While wages in general have been upward throughout Nigeria, the rise has been sharper in some activities than others. For example, average monthly earnings in coal mining have risen about 50 percent since 1951. This rate of increase, however, though indicative of the upward trend in wages, is not representative of all industries. Average monthly earnings of hewers and underground laborers in coal mines, 1951-55, were:

Source: Unpublished memorandum of Department of Labor, Lagos, December 1956.

Clerical workers in the Federal Government are paid the following annual salaries, in pounds:

UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

The Federal Government of Nigeria has accepted the principles of the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention No. 84 concerning the right of association and the settlement of labor disputes in nonmetropolitan territories. This assures trade unions of freedom of association and the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements. Provision is also made for consultation by Government with both sides of industry on labor matters, and for the creation of machinery for the settlement of disputes. The Trades Union Ordinance of Nigeria gives trade unions a legal status, subject to registration, and exempts them from certain common law liabilities.

There were at the end of March 1955, 177 trade unions in Nigeria having a membership of 165,082 and representing all the principal industries. Many of them, however, are local in character or restricted to employees of a single firm. This multiplicity of small, weak

unions and the tendency to form company unions around a single employer tend to detract from the effectiveness of the trade union movement. The many trade unions also suffer from limited financial resources, often the result of reluctance by trade union members to make their regular, contributions.

Coordination between unions has, however, been strengthened by the establishment of the All-Nigerian Trade Union Federation. As of March 31, 1955, it had 39 affiliated trade unions with a membership of about 95,000. The federation enjoys the recognition of those workers and employers who are consulted by the Federal Government on all labor legislation through a Federal Labor Advisory Council.

As a matter of policy, the Federal Government has encouraged the development of sound unionism. Lectures and educational meetings are organized and trade unionists are occasionally granted fellowships for study abroad.

There is little permanent negotiating machinery outside Government service and the public corporations (railway, coal mining, electricity supply, and ports), with the exception of tin-mining companies in Plateau Province and the plantations of the Cameroons Development Corporation where Joint Industrial Councils have been established. Several large firms have consultative committees, and most firms meet trade union officials as the need arises. The Trades Dispute (Arbitration and Inquiry) Ordinance 1948 (amended) provided for voluntary arbitration and conciliation in labor disputes. Under the ordinance, the Commissioner of Labor, where a trade dispute exists or is apprehended, may inquire into the causes of the dispute and take steps to enable the parties to meet. On the consent of employers or workmen, he may appoint a conciliator or an arbitrator. Data available for the year ended March 31, 1955, show the number of disputes and man-days lost in the principal industries in that year (see table 18). In the past, most strikes have involved only a few hours of work stoppage, and few have lasted longer than 5 days. The 12,166 man-days lost in 1954-55 compare favorably with 26,874 in 1953-54 and 59,847 in 1952-53.

LABOR LEGISLATION

Labor legislation is a province of both Federal and Regional Governments since this subject is on the Concurrent Legislative List (see appendix D). The basic legislation, however, at present is Federal.

The Labor Code Ordinance, Chapter 99 of the Laws of Nigeria (1948 Revision), governs the general conditions of labor. This ordinance

Oral contracts.-Contracts of employment for less than 6 months' duration, and to be performed within a restricted area, need not be in writing. Notice of termination is to be 14 days for staff on monthly contracts if employment has lasted more than 1 month; daily- or weekly-rated staff must have 7 days' notice if employment has lasted more than 1 month. All wages are then due at the expiration of notice, but an equivalent sum can be paid in lieu of notice. Transport costs are to be paid by the employer if the worker has to travel over 9 miles to the workplace from the place at which he resided at the time of engagement. Wages are to be paid not less than monthly and up to 7 days' sick leave in 6 months is to be allowed. Employers must provide work for employees presenting themselves for work, or pay wages as if there was work available.

Chapter IV

Written contracts.-Contracts of employment for more than 6 months, or having unusual features, or to be performed outside a restricted area or abroad must be in writing. The contents of the contract must include certain specified matters, and, if not in an approved standard form, must be attested by a Labor Officer. There must normally be a medical examination, and persons under 16 years of age cannot enter into written contracts. There are provisions about notice of termination and about repatriation to place of engagement or origin, including payment of transport costs. For employment outside Nigeria there are special and detailed provisions.