Among the most pressing questions facingmanufacturing firms in Sub-Saharan Africa is how to raiseproductivity. Market liberalization and the move away frominward-looking trade policies has forced African firms tocompete head-on with stronger, more experienced rivals bothat home and abroad. In order for them to survive and takeadvantage of the new opportunities created by economicreforms, African firms must find ways to raise theirtechnical capabilities. The study, training, technology, andfirm efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa examines private'learning' mechanisms by which firms build uptechnical capability and improve productivity. The paperthen attempts to measure the impact of these learninginvestments on enterprise productivity. Survey data fromfive African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania,and Zambia are used in the study. The data come from firmlevel surveys conducted in the mid-1990s by the WorldBank's Regional Program on enterprise development morethan 1,000 firms of all sizes were surveyed across fourmanufacturing sub-sectors. In the interviews, managers wereasked about worker training and technology investments. Thisinformation was augmented by a random sample of workers inthe firms from each employment category. Workers werequestioned about their training experience, work histories,and compensation.
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