ABSTRACT
Public enterprise in Nigeria dates back to the days before independence in 1960. In the years following independence the Government of Nigeria established several public enterprises as part of its attempt to provide services and to promote economic development. The thinking on privatisation, as a policy option, whether in the narrow or broad sense, dates back to 1981 in Nigeria. In discussing the concept of privatisation that could be generally upheld in Nigeria, the point of departure should be the Structural Adjustment Programme, of which privatisation or reform of public enterprises is an important aspect. Privatisation in Nigeria will, several years hence, be regarded as a success if, as defined by a Nigerian economist, it turns out to be ‘not just denationalisation of nationalised businesses, but a process by which the size of an inefficient and ineffective public sector is reduced by transferring some of its functions to a relatively more efficient private sector’.
