Impact Assessment of the Privatization Policy on the Nigerian Economy (1999 – 2015)

The precarious socio-economic situation of Nigeria in the 1980s coupled with the poor performance and returns of investments on the part of state-owned enterprises was adduced by the protagonists of this policy for the large scale of privatization of public enterprises in Nigeria. The contradiction that later surround the policy of privatization in Nigeria is noted in radical-Marxist, classical-liberal as well as a neoliberal operational framework in a mixed economy. Thus, the main objectives of this paper are to examine the Nigeria privatization program on the eve of President Obasanjo administration to the exit of Goodluck Jonathan regime (1999-2015). The researcher, having implored the historical perspective of this policy, uncovered the following contradictions about the privatization program: that corruption, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, insincerity among others that the policy hoped to address hitherto remain the same. The researcher afterward made the following recommendations. That if the privatization policy is to achieve its desired objectives that are economic development: that the policy should be pro-poor with the goals of redesigning public agencies to deliver quality services and the funds realized from the privatized enterprises should be reinvested in a tangible public interest like education, health, and other social services.

Keywords – Privatization, Public Enterprises, Globalization, and Nigeria