Having seen so far that our enterprises
had been a heavy burden on Government purse and that even at that, these
enterprises neither made profits for the Government nor efficiently provided
goods and services to the satisfaction of the citizens for whom they were
established by the Government, the Act has designed the Privatization and
Commercialization Program in such a way as to remedy these disadvantages and
achieve the following objectives, that is to say:
i.
To
restructure and rationalize the public sector in order to lessen the dominance
of unproductive Government investment in the sector.
ii.
To
re-orientate the enterprises for Privatization and Commercialization towards a
new horizon of performance, improvement and overall efficiency.
iii.
To
ensure that if lesser amount of money is spent on Public Enterprises due to
decreased Government participation therein, fund would be raised for financing
socio-economic developments in such areas as health, Education and
infrastructure which the people need even more.
iv.
To
ensure positive return on public sector investments in commercialized
enterprises through more efficient management.
v.
To
check the present absolute dependence on the treasury for funding otherwise
commercially oriented parastatals and so, encourage their approach to the
Nigeria Capital Market to meet their funding requirements.
vi.
To
encourage the approach of our Public Enterprises to Nigerian Capital market to
meet their funding requirement.
vii.
To
imitate the process of gradual cession to the private sector of all such Public
Enterprises which are better operated by the private sector .This will have the
effect of creating health competition between these enterprises previously
owned by the Government and those that have always been private. It will lead
to stable prices and steady supply of goods to the consuming masses.
viii.
Privatization
and Commercialization will create more jobs; these privatized and commercialized
enterprises will be challenged to acquire new technology and skilled staff, and
then expose Nigerians to international competition.
ix.
Commercialization
and Privatization will attract more national and international investors to the
country. This has become evident already in the telecommunication industry.
With the commencement of Privatization, over four major mobile
telecommunication companies have procured licenses and started operation in
Nigeria. They includes, the MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Etisalat, Aitel and other
companies like Rainbow net have procured licenses to operate landline
telecommunication.
x.
Government
most times pursue Privatization and Commercialization programs in other to
reduce the size of existing government, based on the idea that many Governments
have become too large and over-extended, consisting of unnecessary layers of
bureaucracy. Therefore, many countries require restricting in other to improve
efficiency, which can be achieved through Privatization and Commercialization.
According
to the Guidelines on Privatization published by the National Council on
Privatization, are stated to be:
i.
To
move substantial ownership, control and operation of some key enterprises from
the public to the private sector.
ii.
To
attract the private investment necessary as a catalyst for economic growth,
creating a more efficiently operating economy.
iii.
To
stop the dependence of what should be commercially oriented parastatals on
state funding, in the hope that they would turn more to the nation’s capital
market for their financing needs; and
iv.
To
stimulate more employment, attract new technology to Nigeria and expose the
commercial operators in the country to greater competition[1].
[1]
Timi Austen-Peters, core investors vis-Ã -vis minor investors and Nigeria’s
privatization exercise, modus international law and business quarterly Vol.6 No
1, march, 2001 at p.34.