ABSTRACT
Traditionally, African governments have been known to be very active in shaping the destinies of their countries. We can trace this back to the immediate post-independence era of the 1960s when amidst the euphoria of seeing the end of colonialism, African governments wasted no time in devising very comprehensive development plans and invested in large state-run industries. However, the current picture is somewhat different. Now it is generally agreed that the economies of African countries need substantial reform and this has led to a number of changes. In Africa today, most national governments have accepted the prevailing wisdom that private organisations create economic wealth better and are thus embarking, to varying degrees, on deregulating their economic systems. State companies are being privatised and sensitive sectors of the economy like banking and financial services are being deregulated and liberalised.
