1 Public Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

As African governments have relied heavily on public enterprises (PEs) to achieve their development goals, and as these enterprises dominate the economies of many African countries, this study discusses various elements regarding African PEs as well as various alternatives for improving on their past performance. The report itself has three main objectives. The first is to present the available figures on PEs and PE sectors in sub - Saharan Africa; i.e., the numbers, sectors of operation, employment patterns, and their economic importance. The second objective is to examine the many reasons explaining why African governments have so often and so fully relied on public enterprises to try to achieve their development goals while the third objective is to review the past performance record of the PE sector in sub - Saharan Africa. Solving the problems posed by African PEs requires a multi-faceted effort: economic policy reform, divestiture and managerial/institutional actions. None of these activities is simple or easy; all demand a concerted effort on the part of African governments and the international development assistance community.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 120 citations exist upstream.