ABSTRACT

A deepening world economic crisis, sustained and a continuous fall in prices and demand for crude oil has left Benue State in particular and Nigeria in general with sure recession and depression. The need for the government to intervene and manage the economy has become very imperative. But the petro – Naira is no more and the need to generate revenue from alternative source is seriously urgent.

However, the purpose of this dissertation is to appraise the impact of privatization on a developing economy, with a focus on Benue Cement Company Plc, Benue State.

The privatization process, therefore, aims at improving the efficiency of such enterprises and encouraging innovation in the ways in which they are implemented. It thus goes hand, with the establishment of an effective regulatory system that protects the consumers and the legitimate core investors – which refers to the economic reform strategy [privatization].

Therefore, the dissertation consists of an introductory chapter and four other chapters. Chapter two dealt extensively with related literature while chapter three covers the research design and methodology.

Chapter four deals with data presentation and analysis. And chapter five summarizes the findings, proffer recommendations and conclusions for further references and other appendices.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Up till recently, there have been many years of exhaustive deliberations by stakeholders on how to put the Nigeria windingly economy on the path of sustainable growth and development. Now a consensus has emerged on the imperative of the privatization and commercialization of the state owned enterprises.

However, the global economy is characterized by competition, rapid technological development as seen in the fast paced changes in information technology, regional market integration, social economic activities and political unrest.

The inauguration of the national council on privatization is, therefore, very significant in several important respects, it is a critical step in our administration’s social –economic agenda. It is a demonstration of our commitment to institutional reforms. Finally, the response of stakeholder in the month ahead will enable us determine, with a great measure of accuracy, the extent to which we have regained international faith and confidence in our country in general and the economy in particular.

It is important to observe t hat there was a time when it was considered sound economic policy for government to establish and invest in statutory corporations and state owned companies. Though, it was argued that public owned companies were better for stimulating and accelerating national economic development than private capital. The result was proliferation of such state owned enterprises covering a broad spectrum of economic activities. It is estimated that successive Nigeria government have invested up to 800 Billion Naira in public owned companies. Annual returns on this huge investment have been well below 10%. These inefficiencies and, in many cases huge losses, are charged against the public treasury. With declining revenue and escalating demand for effective and affordable social services, the general public stepped up to its yearning for state owned enterprises to become more efficient.

State enterprise suffer from fundamental problems of defective capital structure, excessive bureaucratic control or intervention, inappropriate technology, gross incompetence and mismanagement, blatant corruption and crippling complacency which monopoly endanger. Inevitably, these shortcomings take a heavy toll on the national economy.

The problem associated with state owned enterprises and monopolies are not peculiar to Nigeria. It is true, however, that many developing countries which Nigeria is one, have overcome the problems through a well designed and single minded pursuit of privatization programme, the rationale is that privatization permits government to concentrate on resources on the core functions and responsibilities while enforcing the rules of the game so that the markets can work efficiently, with provision of adequate security and basic infrastructure, as well as ensuring access to the key service like education, hearth and environmental protection. The objective is to assist in restructuring the public sector in a manner that will affect the new synergy between learners and more efficient government and a revitalized, efficient and service oriented private sector.

There has been a lot of public debate and concern as to the impact of the implementation of privatization on the social economic status of the country, indeed a slot of public conferences have been held across the country to enlighten, inform the public and appraise the performances of the privatization on the economy of Nigeria…