Shittu Ademola Bello

Framework for Divestiture of State Enterprises in Nigeria: a Legal and Institutional Perspective Shittu Ademola Bello

Despite the billion of naira invested in the state enterprises in Nigeria between 1960s and 1970s, the public enterprises failed to achieve their stated objectives. This, together with the pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the country to liberalize her economy led Nigeria to embrace a privatization programme which involved the divestiture of state-owned enterprises to individuals and non-government organizations. The focus of this book is to investigate whether the method of privatization by full divestiture of state-owned enterprises through public offering on the capital market, or placement with core investor as adopted by the Bureau of Public Enterprises was appropriate in Nigeria despite the absence of enabling environment. The book also evaluates features of legal and institutional framework for privatisation that had been successful in other jurisdictions with similar socio and economic situation with Nigeria, particularly in the former socialist countries which are privatising like Nigeria, as part of transmission of their economy from command or centrally planned economy to market economy.