THE EFFECT OF PRIVATIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT OWNED INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING ECONOMY

THE EFFECT OF PRIVATIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT OWNED INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING ECONOMY

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Today, we are witnesses to sweeping changes that are taking place in the economies of both developed and developing countries. These changes relate to efforts to move away from government ownership, control or participation in the economy towards free enterprise and increased operation of market forces. On the whole, the changes ar3e making for the reduction in the role of government in the economy with a corresponding expansion in private sector ownership control and participation. Despite the numerous measures in form of economic policies consisting of several incentives to promote industrial, agricultural, and other activities, the Nigerian economy for example still exhibits very prominent features of underdevelopment and such features includes poor managerial skill, heavy reliance on a single commodity oil, which has failed to provide the much needed capital 2 in huge sums as expected for the conscious implementation of a single strategy of development. Public business enterprises creates a solution in which national funds that would have been better spent to guarantee new economic activity and employment opportunities for the army of unemployed is being used to subsidize deadwood that would neither grow nor change. Public enterprises are enterprises that are controlled by the state, they are non-profit oriented enterprises. The participation of the states in enterprises in Nigeria dated back to the colonial era. The task of providing infrastructural facilities such as railway, road, bridges, water, electricity and port facilities fell on the colonial government due to the absence of indigenous companies with the required capital as well as the inability or unwillingness of foreign trading companies to embark on this capital intensive projects. This involvement was expanded and consolidated by the colonial welfare development plan (1946 – 1956) that was formulated when the labour party came to power in the United Kingdom. This trend continued after independence such that by 3 1999, it was estimated that successful Nigerian governments has invested up to 800 billion naira in public owned companies. The privatization and commercialization net of the 1988 and the Bureau of Public Enterprises Net of 1995 defined privatization as the relinquishment of part or all of the equity and other interests held by the federal government or any of its agencies in enterprises whether wholly or partly owned by the federal government. Although the public enterprises have been subjected to criticisms, one to poor management and inefficient utilization of resource and mostly regarded to a dead wood that will neither grow nor change, it was these construct criticism levied against them that led to the idea of privatization and commercialization in which the exercise would enhance efficiency in the economy, rid firms of the crude and undue governmental interference which have been the bane of most public enterprise in Nigeria and other developing countries and also limit the drain by the public enterprise on government resources but the basic objective of the exercise is to enhance efficiency and profitability in the government owned industries

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