Restructuring and Reshaping Africa Oil Exporting Countries Post COVID-19 – A Participatory Development Strategy Approach

Abstract Research Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has the capacity of severely disrupting economic activities and triggering economic crisis, especially in Africa’s Oil Exporting Countries (AOECs). The African economy is likely to be the worst hit, especially the Africa Oil Exporting Countries (AOECs), as they have been majorly low income countries and considering the fall in oil prices, as oil revenue forms a major source of their revenue and government expenditure. Purpose: This study explored the stakeholders’ opinions on reshaping and restructuring the economies of six African Oil Exporting Countries, with the aim of ascertaining the views of academics within the six AOECs, as regards the economic revival post COVID-19. Research methodology: The study utilized the Participatory Development Strategy Approach (PDSA), employing the Cronbach Alpha Reliability test, Estimated Response Rate (ERR) and Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) to extract opinions from 1,260 stakeholders within the six AOECs. Results: The results show that the stakeholders are of the opinion that the solutions to the rebuilding of AOECs are multi-faceted, suggesting a mixture of both government and private institutions in varying degrees. Some of the respondents favoured going back to agriculture and agribusiness to revamp their economies. Novelty: The study utilized an uncommon methodology; the Participatory Development Strategy Approach (PDSA) to achieve its objective. The PDSA is meant to allow the affected stakeholders’ participation in the policy making process. The respondents were purely academics, as it is believed that academics are the sources of hope of solving myriads of human challenges such as hunger and economic crisis.