ABSTRACT
Nigeria, a country of perhaps 106 million people, exhibits considerable diversity in culture and religion, in levels of development, income and patterns of consumption. These patterns can be related to its somewhat turbulent history, from the early nineteenth century Jihad, which brought Islamic reformation to much of the north, through the great changes induced by colonial conquest and decolonisation, to the Civil War in the late 1960s, subsequent oil boom, and current severe recession. While such seemingly traumatic changes have had varying impact upon the individual regions of the country, the overall forces for change-of one sort or another-have been very considerable. The impact on trade has been enormous.
