CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Of The Study
Today, we are witnesses
to sweeping changes that are taking place in the economies of both developed
and developing countries. These changes relate to efforts to move away from
government ownership, control or participation in the economy towards free enterprise
and increased operation of market forces. On the whole, the changes ar3e making
for the reduction in the role of government in the economy with a corresponding
expansion in private sector ownership control and participation.
Despite the numerous
measures in form of economic policies consisting of several incentives to
promote industrial, agricultural, and other activities, the Nigerian economy
for example still exhibits very prominent features of underdevelopment and such
features includes poor managerial skill, heavy reliance on a single commodity
oil, which has failed to provide the much needed capital in
huge sums as expected for the conscious implementation of a single strategy of
development.
Public business
enterprises creates a solution in which national funds that would have been
better spent to guarantee new economic activity and employment opportunities
for the army of unemployed is being used to subsidize deadwood that would
neither grow nor change. Public enterprises are enterprises that are controlled
by the state, they are non-profit oriented enterprises.
The participation of
the states in enterprises in Nigeria dated back to the colonial era. The task
of providing infrastructural facilities such as railway, road, bridges, water,
electricity and port facilities fell on the colonial government due to the
absence of indigenous companies with the required capital as well as the
inability or unwillingness of foreign trading companies to embark on this
capital intensive projects.
