CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Several experts and informed opinions have presented privatization and commercialization as one of the bitter pills to be taken by Nigeria’s in order to recover from economic slump, it to a great extent helps to solve some vital problems that has led to the untimely devastating problems is the syndromes of “not- my fathers- work” which has greatly and negatively affected both smooth running and performance of the these enterprises. The privatization policy was recommended by the onside report of 1982 by the Athakem study group of statutory corruptions and state owned corporations set up in September 1984, the competence of chief Executives of Nigeria public enterprises held in Jos, plateau state in May 29-30, 1985 and by international minatory fund, as a condition for is loan to Nigeria.
Public enterprises in Nigeria has been considered as inefficient and wasteful, this is because they have viewed it wish the profit criterion. According to a school of thought asserting the activities for public enterprises with the profit criterion is not always a fair judgment
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economic activities, it is usually not appropriate to us the performance standard of the private sector “they are horses of different colours”. Unfortunately, the Nigerian public sector enterprises have failed in this efficient and effective provision of the services for which they were established. Infact it was this feeling of failure and crimelessness arising from the increased difficulty in the government that prompted the proposition of privatization policy in Nigeria.
For a large part of the frontlets century, there were countries in the world (Eastern bloc) that promised state ownership of means of production, whiles other (Western bloc) promised private ownership of the means of production. A good number of countries practiced what was termed mixed economy i.e. the combination of public and private ownership of he means of production. However, at the end of the twentieth century with the end of the war between the eastern and western blocs, private ownership of means of production took ascendancy.
Today, the received wisdom is that the state should recede and that private ownership of means of production is the only viable approach
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to efficient production f goods and services, economies growth and development. Nigeria has more than 1,800 public enterprises at Federal and state level which can be categorized as follows:
i. Public utility providing infers fractural services
ii. Strategic industries such as petroleum and petrochemical, fertilizer plans iron steel.
iii. Economic/Commercial enterprises such as manufacturing of consumer goods insurance, banks and hotel.
iv. Departmental/stationary boards designed to serve specific socials of development roles as university and research institutes, Ake (1981)
It is important to note that the introduction of SAP in 1986 serves as a bench mark in economic policy-making in Nigeria with the resultant, liberalization, deregulation, Privatization and commercialization measures. The critical question here remains how many of these policies have been able to resituate the political economy of Nigerian and in true alleviating the yearning and aspiration of the working class.
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1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Privatization and Commercialization of public enterprises is a vital tool for the upliftment of the growth and development of the economy, more especially the developing countries like Nigeria. Regrettably, the problems facing this Privatization and commercialization program is numerous to include:
a. Corruption
b. Lack of Transparency
c. Lack of accountability
d. Inconsistency and,
e. Incredibility
However, it is based on these problems that the basic propositions of this Privatization and commercialization program are being hindered. It is important to note that he major function that informed the establishment of these public enterprises are to control the resources and raise funds for the provision of certain infrastructural facilities particularly in services requiring heavy financial investment e.g. railway, telecommunication electricity etc, also tope form the function of generating revenues that will add to financial development program
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and projects as reliable instrument for the crucifies of jobs and ultimately facilitate economic growth and development. In trying to look into these discrepancies and proffer a way forward toward a state of Privatization and commercialization of public enterprise in Nigeria that enhances economic growth and development this research work emanated.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study has a main objective of finding out the impact of Privatization and commercialization of public enterprises on the Nigerian economy.