Institutional Challenges In The Management Of Privatisation Policy In Nigeria

Nigeria is not left behind in the wave of global adoption of Privatisation as a means of transferring state-owned enterprises into private hands. This has been considered as a veritable reaction to the mismanagement and gross inefficiency that characterised most state-owned enterprises that were saddled with the responsibility of driving national development. To drive this, the Federal government established the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPEs). The objective of this study therefore is to examine the performance of BPEs in the implementation of privatisation programme in Nigeria using the telecommunication sector as a case in point. This study infused the Rockart and Christines’s theory of Critical Success Factors into Guislain’s theoretical assumption. Primary data for the study was collected through the distribution of questionnaire to 50 staff of the BPEs in the Directorate cadre, as well as, personal interviews with other key stakeholders. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to ascertain the reliability index scales of the variables of autonomy, capacity and performance of the BPEs. Spearman’s rho coefficient was used to determine the extent of relationships amongst the variables. The result obtained affirmed an interrelationship between autonomy and capacity as key determinants of performance of BPEs. The result also revealed that increase in autonomy of the BPEs without a corresponding increase in its capacity impacted negatively on its performance. The study therefore recommended, among other measures, a review of the regulatory framework of the operations of the BPEs that brings Nigeria’s Executive President directly into the approval loop of all privatisation transactions, review of BPEs power to only remit the net proceeds of privatisation after defraying associated costs of each privatisation transaction, introduce a natural career progression process that enable staff from within the BPEs to aspire and attain the highest position of Director General in the organization.