| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation analysed the outcome of the adoption and implementation of
privatisation by Nigeria, of which a legal framework has been put in place by the
government to legalise the process of transferring the ownership and/or control of
public enterprises to private entrepreneurs with a view to facilitating economic
development in the country. Many other African countries have pursued similar reform
paths with similar objectives and the thesis undertakes a general analysis of the outcome
of adopting and implementing privatisation within the continent. Within Nigeria, the
proposed power sector privatisation is specifically analysed. The dissertation focuses on
the economic development outcome of privatisation, which encompasses key benefits
that have been attributed to privatisation including the beneficial impact of privatisation
on the public sector as well as the privatised enterprises, privatisation’s contribution to
overall private sector development, the benefit of privatisation to the citizens of the
country and finally privatisation’s usefulness as a conduit for beneficial foreign
investment inflow to the country. These benefits are viewed collectively, of which
achieving some of them at the expense of others may not augur well for broad based
economic development in Nigeria specifically or Africa in general.
Using the analytical framework created in the thesis, various issues that have adversely
affected the full realisation of these key economic development benefits and created a
gap between the policy objectives behind privatisation law and the reality of
implementation were analysed. The approach of International Financial Institutions
(IFIs) (specifically the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) to
privatisation was also considered in the thesis owing to the fact that they have had some
influence in its adoption and implementation in Nigeria, and Africa more broadly.
Privatisation entails more than just legal reform, thus, the research is interdisciplinary in
nature and principally touches on legal issues, public policy issues and issues pertaining
to economic development, including social issues. | en_US |
