Privatization and state-owned enterprises performance: The case of Nigeria

A government involved in economic activities for national development, redistribution of
resources, economic growth, and elimination of bottlenecks in the various sectors of the
economy. For these reasons, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) become large and significance. The absence of entrepreneurial class, shortage of capital, and oil revenue
spurred more government involvement in all sectors of the Nigerian economy. However,
the justifications for government involvement in the economic activities were gradually
replaced with inefficiencies, misallocation of resources, rent-seeking and political goals,
exposing SOEs as being inefficient and problematic. As a result, the government
introduced privatization. The Nigerian government has been privatizing its holding in
SOEs since 1990. The objective of this study was to appraise the performance of privatized SOEs in Nigeria. The research used secondary data sourced from the annual reports of selected SOEs. The dependent variables were profitability and efficiency which were divided into six indicators namely gross profit margin, net profit margin, operating profit margin, sale efficiency, net income efficiency and average collection period. The independent variables are privatization, sales, capital, workers and ownership. Privatization is the focus variable. The analysis was divided into mean comparison, panel data analysis (fixed effects model and random effects model) and generalized method of moments. The analysis produced diverse results. The mean comparison results indicated that the post-privatization performances of the selected SOEs are more than their preprivatization performance, implied that the implementation of privatization policy have improved their performances. In panel data analysis, the results of the profitability and
efficiency models indicated that most of the enterprises documented mixed performance
increased. Similarly, in the generalized method of moments, privatization has revealed diverse results of SOEs performance. In sum, the findings revealed mixed performance improvement of the privatized SOEs. Policy makers and managers of enterprises should be concerned with policies that enhance SOEs performance. The SOEs managers must ensure strict conformity to the profitability enhancing measures rather than political goals that create inefficiencies and waste of resources. Finally, the results of study supported the government effort in privatizing the rest of the SOEs