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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Public Enterprise Reform in Africa: Lessons from Experience |
Author: | Lungu, Gatian F. |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Africanus |
Volume: | 27 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 34-44 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | economic policy public enterprises Politics and Government Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
Abstract: | When structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) were introduced in Africa in the late 1970s, the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, public enterprises, together with the civil service, became central concerns for reform. This article analyses the reforms undertaken by African governments with regard to public enterprises in general, and draws some lessons from the outcomes over the past decade and a half (1980-1995). Between 1980 and 1991, 34 African countries undertook World Bank-IMF-related structural adjustment programmes, of which public enterprise reform has been a large component. However, some of the main objectives of reform in this sector, namely to revitalize African economies, reduce foreign debt, and develop a vibrant, private sectored economy, have not materialized to any significant degree. The lessons that can be learned are that privatization and liberalization policies that favour a private-sector driven economy make sense only in an economy conditioned by a strong tradition of private enterprise. Bibliogr. |