Participation of Sub-National Companies in Privatized Firms in Nigeria

Around the world, the implementation of privatization has varied in policy, polity, strategy and method. In Nigeria, the Nigerian privatization program has always been centralized under a federal policy and polity without an effective interface between the Center and the states. The Federal Government's resolve to disengage from State-Owned Enterprises did not always meet similar interest on the part of States and Local Governments. As a consequence, in Nigeria, most of Sub-national Governments have adopted a substitute approach which entails the transfer of their stakes to their respective Sub-national investment companies. These companies strive to promote those stakes beyond what is expected from other ordinary shareholders, leading sometimes to unresolved board conflicts. We postulated that the more stakes are held by Sub-national investment companies in privatized firms, the more unresolved board conflicts are likely to occur in these privatized firms.