Privatization In Nigeria

Nigeria's political economy has straddled the ideological divide between socialism and capitalism. The country produces oil, and at some point in its existence, it embarked on robust state involvement in the economy. This was marked by the acquisition, or establishment, of numerous state enterprises. Over the years, the performance of these enterprises was found to be dismal, and as part of the overall reform of the economy, Nigeria has joined the global trend toward reduction in direct state ownership of enterprises. Indeed, it has embarked on massive divestment of state interests in once publicly owned firms. Besides the universal rationale of efficiency, one of the objectives of the privatization exercise in Nigeria is the attraction and retention of foreign investments. This work examines the direct and indirect linkage between the government's divestiture of its interests in firms, on the one hand, and foreign investments in the country, on the other hand. The book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the political and economic history of Nigeria, to set the background and context that necessitated the introduction of the reform package of which privatization is just an aspect. Chapter 2 is a discussion of various natures of state involvement in an economy. This ranges from mere regulation to active participation. The chapter discusses the competing conceptual and ideological theories and tries to situate the Nigerian experience within the broader conceptual dichotomies of capitalism, socialism and the via media of mixed economy. Chapter 3 is an examination of the meaning and rationales for privatization of state owned enterprises generally and the Nigerian attempts in particular. Nigeria's privatization program is an ongoing exercise. Yet two distinct attempts are identifiable: one which started in 1988 and the reinvigoration of the exercise, albeit with new constitutive frameworks, in 1999. Thus, Chapters 4 and 5 review the legal and institutional frameworks for these two exercises. Chapter 6 deals with foreign investments in Nigeria. The discussion encapsulates the pros and cons of foreign investments, especially in Nigeria. Chapter 7 explores the direct and indirect linkages between the privatization program in Nigeria and foreign investments in the country. This is particularly apposite because one of the touted objectives of the privatization exercise is the attraction of foreign investments. A conclusion follows. The work finds that although foreign investments appear to have been indirectly boosted by the privatization exercise, foreign investors initially did not show interest in direct acquisition of the shares and other interests being relinquished by the government, but that that attitude has been changing gradually.

Academic Paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, , course: Business Administration, language: English, abstract: Power Holding Company of Nigeria Limited (PHCN), a public enterprise was established, financed and managed by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The paper utilized both primary and secondary sources to analyzed the effect of privatization and commercialization of PHCN on service delivery to electricity customers in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study engaged one hundred and fifty-four (154) respondents randomly-selected from the five departments of PHCN, Uyo. The findings revealed that PHCN has to contend with internal and external externalities and constraints such as: poor funding of the enterprise, corruption, excessive control by the Federal Government, vandalization of its equipment by hoodlums, fraud, shady dealings, poor maintenance, damage to electricity infrastructure by windstorms and erosion, debts owed it and irregular rainfall. Government should examine and select the competent professionals as Public-Private Partners (PPP) and not people/enterprises with questionable character to handle commercialized and privatized Government enterprises . Capturing the confidence of labour Unions, building more power plants, staff training and motivation, monitoring of the privatization processes, transparency and accountability will check corruption, Government interference and recruitment by patronage. The paper concluded that electricity is the bedrock of socio-economic development of any nation, hence priority must be set for its full privatization and commercialization as it did to the national telecommunication carrier, NITEL, so than Nigerians and Nigeria can grow and develop like other nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and India, which have almost same characteristics as Nigeria. A Private sector-driven economy is key to this development and government must create this opportunity and environment in Nigeria, if it must grow and develop industrially, socially and economically.